Could a gas station blow up if a car was on fire next to a pump?
To explode, the fuel must be vaporized. Liquid fuel is not explosive, it will just burn. Only when the fuel is sprayed into a mist, and ignited is it explosive. The fuel in the underground tanks is liquid. There are several safeguards to prevent flames from reaching these tanks, but even if it did, they would not explode like in the movies. A car on fire could cause the gas in the pumps to burn, but there are standard fuel cut off switches to prevent fuel from continuing to flow, and prevent fire from following the line back to the tanks. There would be lots of burning, but small if any explosions. The fuel tanks of modern cars are built to prevent explosions also. I hope this helps.
