> Actually, amazingly enough, one of my certifiable friends is so
> confident in the safety of gasoline that he actually extinguished
> his cigarette in it!  I've seen it done, and in disbelief, no
> explosion, and no flame.  So if the heat of the cigarette is not
> hot enough to ignite gasoline, would the spark from a dropped cell
> phone?

I called my brother in law, he is an gas tank engineer at a quite large
gas company, talked about this subject for long time. I hope this can
clarify something.

The main point of the conversation was that gasoline DOES NOT BURN, what
burns is its vapor or its spray, because it needs oxygen *in the right
mix*, if not, it puts the fire away. So, a cigarette can be extinguished
in "liquid" gasoline if not producing sparks or ignite its 10cm vapors
above the liquid.

He also said that gasoline vapors are heavier than air, so it
concentrate close to the ground and even at the water drains close to
the gas pumps... dropping a cell phone close to it, even the
microscopics battery sparks ignite it with a nice explosion.  Of course
he confirmed that lots of places around gas tanks and pipes, it is
*forbided* to use any kind of "not intrinsical safe" electric/tronic
devices, and even key-rings are not allowed in some places.

Asked about car static electricity, he said that (because it is heavier
than air) gas vapors can not accumulate that high (close to the car
door's handlers) in open spaces as gas stations, normaly it fades away
horizontally all around, not that high.  His point is based on the
acidentally dropping of a cell phone at the floor as being the main
reason of the issue.

Ending the phone call, I asked him what happens if I generate a 10,000
volts electric red spark between two electrodes 3mm apart, half meter
deep inside liquid gasoline... he aswered: Absolute NOTHING, but don't
even think to do it. He said it is much more dangerous to be shaking
(playing with) your car's keys around gas vapors.