You can't shoot a propane tank and make it explode, unless you have some kind of incendiary round. Most of the time when shot, a propane tank will just throw a plume of propane gas 40 ft in one direction. A normal bullet won't get hot enough to cause a spark. Propane tanks need an ignition source. This could possibly be achieved with a tracer bullet, which is accompanied by sparks that make the trajectory visible. Even then you wouldn't be guaranteed an explosion. On mythbusters, they theorized that the shooter would need to be far enough away for the bullet to build up enough frictional heat.
In this video, they set up a burning candle next to the tanks, but it still took 10 or so shots before the leaking propane ignited. The explosion is pretty small and burns out fast. It seems that being about 300m away is pretty safe as long as you don't get tagged by a flying shutoff valve.
What about a gas tank on a vehicle? Nope!
Although a partially full tank would be more likely to explode (due to the presence of air) than a full one, the chances of this actually happening seem pretty slim. Apparently, even a pipe bomb in a gas tank won't ignite the gas (according to a guy claiming to be a firefighter on the internet!) It would need to embellished with steel wool or some other medium that could absorb the initial heat of the explosion and carry that heat far enough away to where the air-to-gas ratio becomes favorable for ignition of the gas.
There is another experiment where a cutting torch is placed over an oxy-acetylene tank and allowed to burn. Though the tank eventually ruptures dramatically, the force of the escaping gas is high enough that the flame is put out immediately.
That only works for because the tank is under high pressure... You can definitely ignite a vehicle gas tank with a cutting torch, as this fellow found out around 2:45.
Though a fire extinguisher would have been better, the fire was small enough that the hose was able to douse it. If the fire had been much much bigger, he would have needed a great deal more water than what a garden hose could provide.
This is great info to know! It would have been handy when my buddy was taking a torch to one of the struts on my truck so we could get it off. The rubber boot caught on fire and I was freaking out because I thought the truck was going to go up!
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Fire and flammable liquids often behave in very unexpected ways as you pointed out in this article. Hollywood is probably to blame for that. A lot of it has to do with the air to gas ration - again as you stated. Another myth is that you can light a gas spill with a cigarette. Not true, you need an open flame to light gasoline. You can basically put out a lit cigarette in a bucket of gas. Other weird behaviors sometimes have to do with the specific gravity of the gas. If the gas is heavier than air it will pool on the floor. If its lighter than air it will gather at the ceiling. There have been cases where people have used chemicals in their homes without proper ventilation. The gas being heavier than air, travelled down the stairs to the basement where it was ignited by the furnaces pilot light.
Regarding propane tank fires. You should look up the term BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion). They are pretty interesting as well. I took a course on fire investigation as part of my fire protection technology degree. It was interesting learning all the ways people try to commit insurance fraud by burning down their house or blowing it up. People usually get caught and there are a lot of epic fails lol.
BLEVE video
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Now I know much more better but this is dangerous also o
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Very true. You need tracer shells.
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That really interesting. Hollywood definitely contributes to human ignorance.
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