Fire tests planned after fuel-container incidents
TORONTO — The Ontario fire marshal’s office is to conduct tests to better understand how hand-held fuel containers could ignite and inadvertently become flamethrowers when used around products such as ethanol-fuelled lamps and recreational fire pits.
The analysis comes as the office said it has noted four incidents in the past six years in which the phenomenon, known as flame jetting, has occurred, leaving people with horrific injuries and, in one case, killing a woman.
“The impact of the injuries and fatalities are extreme on the people who are directly involved or in the area when it happens,” said Jeff Tebby, a supervisor with the quality assurance and risk management unit at the Office of Ontario’s Fire Marshal.
The office’s testing will look at the factors behind flame jetting, and will report to Health Canada, Tebby said, noting it would be up to the federal agency to decide what to do with the findings.
Flame jetting occurs when fuel is poured on products such as lamps and fire pits that appear to be extinguished, but aren’t, Tebby said. Flames follow fuel fumes back to the fuel container, travel inside and combust. That propels liquid fuel out, turning the container into a flame-thrower, Tebby said. “The person who is doing the pouring is usually not the one hurt, it’s the victim in the direct path of the flame jet,” he said.
One way to guard against the phenomenon is by having a flame arrester — plastic or wire mesh that absorbs heat from a container and prevents fire from travelling inside — on fuel containers, said Tebby, noting that it is up to the manufacturer to install one.
The four incidents of flame jetting the office is aware of all involved ethanol-fuelled appliances, Tebby said, adding that Health Canada was notified of the one that involved a fatality.
The fatal incident took place in August 2016, when a Peterborough, Ont., dentist died after an ethanol-fuelled lamp exploded.
Dr. Judith Buys was sitting near the lamp at a cottage when a friend, who thought the lamp’s flame had gone out, tried to refuel it, Buys’ family said.
Flames that flew out of the open refuelling container hit Buys, who died of severe injuries days later, said her husband, James McGorman, who is suing the maker of the lamp, alleging its product was unsafe.
McGorman called for flame arresters to be required on all containers with volatile substances. “It’s time we had some action,” he said.