A Real Gas Station Fire Caused By A Mobile Phone?
from the hmmmmmm... dept
For years, we've been told that all those stories that get passed around by email forwards about exploding fuel pumps due to a ringing mobile phone are simply urban legends. However, now, the Associated Press is reporting a story that sounds remarkably like that urban legend. Has the urban legend become true or was a reporter taken in by a hoax? It appears the Poughkeepsie Journal has the original story, including some quotes from both the "victim" and the fire chief.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
I thought MythBusters disproved that
http://dsc.discovery.com/schedule/episode.jsp?episode=2&cpi=24344&gid=425&channel=DSC
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I thought MythBusters disproved that
One thing I do know is that a Sprint PCS phone that I had a several years ago had a spark glow internally every time it rang (was pretty audible most of the time as well).
Most of the stuff on the show is neat to see, but some of the conclusions are brought on too quickly without attempting to exhaust even a majority of the possibilities. They are much better at proving that something "can" be done rather than something "can't" be done. Very entertaining show nonetheless.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I thought MythBusters disproved that
Based on the article, it sounds to me like something else was going on. And the fire department like any other civil servants have little incentive to really dig when there's a simple somewhat plausible answer staring them in the face. Doesn't matter how impossible, if people will believe it, that's one less job they have to do.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]