We were that close to going up like that today. In town we only carry a partial gallon of spare gas on the coil cleaning truck. Our tanks usually hold plenty for most of the day between the two units.
But somehow that plastic can with a half gallon or so got pushed or vibrated down the flatbed and rested against the exhaust pipe and caught fire while the unit was shut off and we were just up on the roof closing units up.
A good Samaritan started blowing their horn and tried to put it out with a water bottle not realizing it was the gas jug under the PW engine that was on fire. Chris went down quick on the lift, started up the other pressure washer and had a heck of a time trying to put it out. The fire extinguisher that was supposed to be behind the truck seat somehow found it's way into the office and wasn't there when we needed it.
An employee of the store we were servicing came running with an extinguisher and put out the last of it. The fire department showed up a few minutes later and put down a lot of absorbents that we cleaned up ourselves.
It didn't do more than about $150 in damage to the pressure washer though. Chris was on the ball and probably saved the whole truck. He was the first one to the lift so all we could do was watch from the roof.
This is us cleaning up the last of the absorbent after the fire truck left.
The gas jug had slid right under the exhaust and the extent of the damage was just a lot of melted plastic.
BTW, the fire extinguisher is in the truck now..... :yikes: