What would be the extensiveness of a

[E8]

Gas station exploding? I know this is a crazy to ask right now but me and my roomate just came out of a gas station and an early model BMW pulls in front of us and was dripping flames under the hood right by the pumps. We told the guy to get it away from the pumps so he manages pushes just over the main tanks where the tankers pump it in are. The car suddenly just goes up in flames before he could get it any further.

So my roomate, like an idiot, thinks we're safe just one parking lot over definitely less then a hundred yards away IMO. My roomate insists it was a football field and wants to stay and watch the fireworks. Anyways I don't think it matters b/c If the gas station were to blow up I'd imagine a crater well over a football field or two at least. So I'm arguing to get out of there and he wants to stay b/c he thinks we're far enough away. I'd imagine the gas station is very well protected from something like this to happen but let's just say the tanks do go up how far could the damage reach? Now he's running his mouth in the background saying if it did blow up it wouldn't have even blown up the waffle house RIGHT next to it.

He won't believe anything I say so I figure if it comes out of here he'd believe it. Now he's saying the explosion wouldn't do anything b/c it would go straight up and not in an outward sphere. This may be the case if they design the tanks in such a manner...whatever I'm done w/ this please just correct one of us or both of us. Thank you.

 

[Andy]

In the UK all of the petrol tanks have been made bomb proof so that the IRA could not blow them up, I am not sure if they have done this anywhere else but i would have thought so(seems a wise idea to me). As for how large the explosion would be i dunno, all depends on how large the Tanks and how much fuel they have in them, and it also depends on if you can get someone smart enough to do the maths to work it out.

 

[E8]

Thanks Andy, anybody else give it a try?