I was pulling into a gas station the other day when I noticed a car pulling away and several customers returning to their cars from several feet away. One of them noticed the fire department plate on my truck and told me that the person leaving was smoking a cigarette while pumping gas. The patrons were upset and downright angry.

I guess the good Lord takes care of puppies and fools. The incident did make me think about a function that takes place sixty million times a year: fueling our cars. After reviewing many sources online, I have found several simple rules that make us a little safer as we fill up our cars.

First, turn off the engine. Don’t smoke or light any flame. Seems obvious right? But remember the fool above.

The greatest likelihood of fire while fueling comes from re-entering and re-exiting your car while fueling. You’re going to hate me for this, ladies, but this is your thing. The static charge from your clothes from leaving your car has enough energy to ignite the vapors at the fill site when you remove the nozzle. The best practice is to touch your car to dissipate the charge and to stay near the fill location to reduce re-charging.

In the unlikely event that the fill site catches fire, leave the nozzle alone in the car. The automatic fire suppression system will discharge a fire retardant material and turn off the power to the pump.

There was some data online that suggests you should unfasten infant restraints before refueling your car. I have been giving that a lot of thought for all restrained passengers. The fire chief in me wants to suggest snapping open seat belts; my practical-dad side is not so sure. I will leave you to ponder that one.

Filling portable containers is even more dangerous than filling your car. Static electricity is, again, the great danger. The best practice is to place the container on the concrete surface; let the nozzle touch the side of the container; then start the filling. Following those steps exactly should dissipate any dangerous static electricity harmlessly into the concrete.

The back of a pickup is not grounded, and is therefore able to harbor a dangerous static charge. So don’t fill up a container that’s sitting in your truck bed or, for that matter, anywhere on any vehicle.

Portable fuel containers come in colors. The color indicates the kind of fuel it contains. Red is for gasoline, yellow is for diesel fuel, and blue is for kerosene. Mixing fuels and containers is inviting a bad day.

Christmas Trees on December 7

We have ordered our supply of Christmas trees. They will be cut the day before we pick them up to assure freshness. As always, we offer free delivery.

We will be at the East Andover Fire Station on Saturday, December 7, from 8 AM until we sell out. Firemen are just big kids, and selling Christmas trees is a lot of fun for us. Join us for the fun, pick out a tree, and leave the rest to us.

We are taking a break from selling poinsettias this year, so we will all be available to assist you. See you on December 7.

Oh, and the “ladies” comment earlier. I am just quoting the American Petroleum Institute statistics. Man, I’m going to pay for that one!