Refuelling

Refuelling is a two-minute job that happens several times a day, which is exactly why the shortcuts creep in. Almost every fuel fire on a site starts at one of four skipped steps.

Engine off

Every time. 1910.178(p)(2) puts it in the standard for forklifts and the reason applies to everything: fuel tanks shall not be filled while the engine is running.

• Off, and out of gear, brake on.
• Let it cool. Petrol on a hot exhaust manifold or a hot muffler ignites without any spark at all. Two-stroke tools — chainsaws, cut-off saws, blowers, plate compactors — are the worst for this because they run hot and get refuelled constantly. Give it a few minutes.
• No smoking, no phone, no hot work, no grinding anywhere near. And "near" means further than it feels, because the vapour travels.

On the ground

Static electricity is the ignition source people forget.

• Portable containers go on the ground to be filled, never in a truck bed and never on a plastic bed liner. The liner insulates the can, the charge from the flowing fuel builds with nowhere to go, and it discharges at the filler neck where the vapour is.
• Keep the nozzle in contact with the fill opening the whole time. Metal to metal is the bond.
• Do not get back in the vehicle while fuelling. Sliding across a seat builds a charge on you, and you discharge it at the nozzle when you come back to it.
• 1926.152(e)(2): transferring flammable liquid between containers is done only when the containers are bonded.

Approved containers

• Safety cans with self-closing lids, flame arresters and proper spouts, labelled for what is in them.
• Never a water jug, a soda bottle, or an unmarked pail. Somebody will drink it or put it in the wrong machine, and both have happened.
• Do not overfill. Fuel expands, and a can filled to the brim in the morning is venting by the afternoon.
• Lids on and secured for transport, upright, ventilated, never in a sealed passenger space.

Spills

• Stop, and do not start anything. No engines, no switches, no phones.
• Absorb it and bag the absorbent as hazardous waste. Never hose it down or wash it to a drain.
• Change your clothes if you get fuel on them. Fuel-soaked clothing ignites easily and holds the vapour against your skin, and diesel and petrol both burn skin on long contact.
• Know where the extinguisher is before you start — Class B, and know you have seconds.

And the everyday one

Right fuel in the right machine. Putting petrol in a diesel or mixed fuel in a four-stroke costs an engine at best, and at worst somebody works on a machine that then behaves in a way nobody expects.