“Divine Providence,” is the explanation that the Santo Domingo West Fire Department gives for the low incidence of deaths or injuries in fires in cars and buses, both private and public, caused by poorly working Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) systems. Fire Department Lieutenant Colonels Jean Luis Yedy and Simeon Cabrera outlined a series of variables that could occur for a car with a poorly installed LPG system and in bad shape to become volatile. The spreading capacity of LPG, bad installations, poor or non-existent maintenance and bad practices by users make transport in a vehicle with the LPG system a public danger.
“LPG moves at 15 feet a second, in order to explode in the atmosphere it needs 35% saturation. All is needed is one spark and it is almost certain that no one will come out alive,” said Simeon Cabrera. The Fire Department expert told reporters that “it is like the blink of an eye. It is fast. Just imagine that it is taking on passengers, stopped, and there is a leak. The vehicle goes up in flames and explodes,” he says. The same thing could occur in a private car when the family is getting in. “If you smell gas it is because there is a leak. In a vehicle in bad condition, like public cars (the ubiquitous “conchos”), there could be a wiring harness with some exposed wires, a battery cable that sparks, the engine, the muffler, it is possible to create the conditions needed for a fire to start and an accident to happen anywhere,” stated Jean Luis Yedy, who went on to say, “an LPG leak is unpredictable.”
Methanethiol (CH3SH) is added to LPG to give it its typical smell. This is meant to prevent tragedies, but in reality it is the lack of supervision by the authorities that increases the occurrence of the incidents. Propane by itself is odorless and very dangerous if undetected.