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emergency responder participating in the incident, stay well clear of the area. Generally, emergency responders will back away from a situation if their combustible gas indicators register even 10-15% of the lower explosive limit. They may attempt vapor suppression with foam or take other measures, but that's a whole other topic. I'm already more than 200 yards off on this tangent.

If you are now excited about flash points, where can you find such information? Some of the data for this article I obtained simply by typing "gasoline msds" into the search engine. MSDS stands for "Material Safety Data Sheet." These sheets are available for all commercial products and contain a wealth of valuable information covering not just flammability but chemical structure, health effects, reactivity, physical properties, environmental impact and more - again, a whole other article. Chevron's MSDS for regular unleaded gasoline was nicely done, a good format and easy to read. They're not all that well written, but most are pretty decent.

What other flammables might you have around the house? Ethanol! The MSDS for ethanol shows a flash point of 55 degrees F. Your vodka is 80 proof? That's only 40% alcohol, but on a warm day - do you smoke and drink? How about that rubbing alcohol, isopropanol. I get the 90% stuff; who wants to pay for water? Flash point is 54 degrees F. Nail polish remover do they still use acetone for that? Flash point is -4 degrees F.* The methyl ethyl ketone in your white board markers? 19F. The styrene solvent in that glue you're using? 88F. Now we're having fun. Feel free to continue without me. Heard any good exploding butane lighter stories lately?

* The "cc" you will see after some flash points stands for closed cup (vs. open cup) indicating the type of method used to measure the flash point. The closed cup value should be more conservative (lower value). However, flash point determinations are often imprecise. Don't bet your life on them. Leave a big margin for error.

Learn more about this author, Michael Capraro.
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