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Originally Posted by Rhapsody Fire Beads
Propane is nothing to mess with, keep it outside. Period. This weekend my hubby's cousin just lost his 12 year old daughter to a propane explosion from a leak building up under their house. They used it for cooking. She didn't make it out of the house alive.
~Suzy~
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That's horrible, Suzy. I'm so sorry. Please give him and all of your family my condolences.
My friends' cabin in Crested Butte, CO. blew up because of a propane pipe leak in the basement. Luckily, they had gone home two days before. They usually turned off the gas from their large tank outside the house when they left but some people were coming the next week so they left it on. Thank god there were no casualties. It was still a traumatizing experience for them, so PLEASE be careful with any kind of fuel gasses. Parts of their cabin were found TWO BLOCKS away!
If you keep your propane tanks in a container outside, make sure you have vent holes near the bottom for the gas to get out and holes near the top for fresh air to get in. You don't want to open it with propane all pooled in there!
Also-- if you go the natural gas route, make sure you have a gas-certified plumber install your lines. If not a plumber, make sure the installer is gas-certified. Make sure you have on-off valves where they are easy to reach and are clearly marked ON-OFF in case of a problem. Have all lines and valves re-checked by a gas-certified inspector at least once a year.
Lots of things can ignite natural gas or propane in an enclosed space-- it's nothing to mess with. If you have any natural gas or propane lines in your house, they should be checked by a gas-certified inspector regularly. If you ever smell gas in your house, LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. Go to a neighbor's house and call the gas company. Let them come and turn off the gas and check for leaks. They have sophisticated leak-detecting equipment and can turn the gas off from a remote location if neccessary.
I know of way too many bad things happening to people, like my friends here in New Orleans who were killed when the shed that they kept their hot water heater in exploded when they opened the door. None of us here want to seem like school-marms or hall monitors but we also do not want to hear about something terrible happening to anybody.
Fuel can be dealt with safely and with a minimum of risk as long as we all take the necessary precautions to make it so. Replace compromised equipment when it breaks down, don't have large quantities of flammable gas in your house, check for leaks in your hoses and regulators once a month, and have a gas-certified inspector check all your gas appliances, lines and valves yearly. All of those precautions will minimize your risks, and you can torch to your heart's content, safely and happily.