Spilled Gasoline

Mark W

Mark W

Well-known member
This is a new one for me. I was going out for an afternoon shoot yeasterday and loaded up teh boat and headed out. I get to the ramp and get the cover off of the boat and was overwhelmed with the smell of gas. I looked at the gas can and it had flipped over and with the vent open, spilled into the boat and all over everything. I got the gas out of the bottom of the boat and went for the hunt anyway thinking that the best way to get rid of the odor was to let it air out.

Here is what the gas got on - decoys, decoy bags, raffia grass blind (a little of the blind not much), gas tank, gas hose, all over back holf of boat.

Needless to say, after 4 hours of hunting, the boat still reeked. I took it out of the garage this morning and washed the inside of the boat to get the gas out of there. I sprayed some Simple green on the blind and hosed it off. I took the decoy bags out and some of the decoys and set them on the lawn. Hopefully when I get home today the smell will be gone.

Anything else to get rid of gas odor that anyone can share. I couldn't even hunt from the boat yesterday as it was so strong.

Mark W
 
a match?

:-)

I've had gas spill in the boat before and eventually it all vaporizes (volatalizes?). I don't notice a smell in my boat anymore. I don't know if you can accelerate that, I suspect that the most you could do is use a soapy water (Dawn?) to lift the petroleum and rinse it off things and out of your boat. I don't think plain water will do the job.

Other than that, I think time and open air is the best solution.

And staying away from sparks and flames - no cooking breakfast in an enclosed blind on the boat until it goes away. :-)

Do you have open floatation compartments in your floor with EPS foam? You might want to check them out. Gas can eat EPS pretty dramatically.

Charlie
 
Yikes Mark! At least you aren't a smoker! When I was a paramedic I had a patient once who put a gallon of gas in an uncapped container on the rear floorboard. She lit up a cigarette and the fumes ingnited and the explosion blew out all the windows in the car and burnt her badly.
Leaving the whole mess out in the open air is the best thing to do.
 
Was it 2 stroke gas with oil in it? That stuff is hard to get off. Dish soap with a degreaser in it works pretty good but the damn smell of gas lingers for a while. Airing out is the only solution..might spray it down with Febreeze up under the decks....or if you have to put the lid back on, put 4 or 5 boxes of baking sode in there.
 
Yeah, it was a 2-smoker.

The smell was the worst in the rear of the boat where the gas can tipped. It got into the muck on the bottom of the boat and just hung around. I scrubbed that hard this morning and it should be better by the time I get home today.

I can scrub the dekes and the deke bags when I get home and this should help. the only thing I wonder about is the raffia grass and the bushy ridge camo material I use for the blind. Hard to wash these areas. I do have some secret special stuff here that is suppose to eat oil quickly and I may spray some of that on the blind when I get home tonight.

I don't smoke but did have a cigar with me last night as I was going to celebrate finally getting out in the field again. Managed to get 3 ducks so the evening wasn't a total loss. Was even too afraid to shoot the gun off anywhere near the boat last night as God knows what could have happened.

Mark W
 
Mark, my work is related to clean-up of petroleum-contaminated soil and groundwater. I think your best solution is to thoroughly wash with soap and water, as you've done and allow everything to dry for along time in an open warm area, the warmer the better. heat, not flames, is the key to removing the volatile gasoline compounds. if you have a wooden boat or cork dekes, it may take some time for these to be cleaned as the gas may would have soaked in the pores.
if that doesn't work, check with your local fire dept, they may have a cup of "no flash" (detergent-type material) that they can spare. use it like soap to re-wash things. good luck.
 
also remember that gasoline fumes are heavier than air. Your boat is acting as a "cup" of sorts, holding those fumes inside the boat. Make sure that you remove your drain plug to allow the fumes to escape, or, if possible, turn the boat upside down to clean.
 
Mark-

I had something sort of kind of like that happen to me. I went to fill up my tank in the truck and had to go inside to prepay. I came out, took the gas cap off the tank, picked up the hose without pushing any buttons or the levers and gas just started spewing out of the hose all over me and my truck. I was pi$$ed to say the least. I got the hose into the truck so it was filling up thte tank, let it fill up and it shut itself off....again without pressing any levers or buttons or anything. I took off what I could of my clothes and went home....the best I could do was to stand under a HOT shower with lots of soap to try and get the gas off. my clothes went into a hot wash load with soap and baking soda....it seemed to help neutralize the smell b/c I put baking soda on my sandals and it got rid of the smell pretty good. Just a thought. I stunk longer than my clothes and shoes did.
 
Dani, I have found that showers as cold as I could stand work better..when you go hot, your pores open up and your skin becomes a sponge. This is especially important when working with fiberglass since the strands in the dust will work themselves into your pores and itch like a sumbich.
 
Mark
Use a citrus based cleaner. I use De-Solv-It and works better than soap and water to get rid of petroleum residue left behind by gas and oil. It also is an adhesive remover, so might want to be careful on what use put it on. If you have an oil stain on your garage floor, it will work good for that. I have used it to clean the oil off motor parts when I repaired my outboard motor.
 
Another degreaser is (perceithlean)sp? A dry cleaning solution. I got some from a dry cleaner once. Just don't use it around any open flame. Mustard gas. World War I Will clean any oil or gas.
 
Mark, I've been using Oil Eater (sold at Costco) and find it to be outstanding for cleaning up gas spills. Available by the gallon with surface specific recommended dilution ratios on the label.

For smaller areas I use 3M Citrus Base Cleaner (I believe you may have a source.)
 
Thanks for all the advice. I've tried a bunch of stuff and the smell while greatly reduced, can still be smelled. Best product I used was from a company on the West Coast who is doing some work with us. I can't say the name of the company but product that is similar would be a bilge cleaner product that contains bugs. Bacteria that eats oil spills, combined with some enzymes, does a decent job. My problem has been that it has finally decided to start getting a little cold. This is good for the ducks but bad for trying to rid a boat of gas smell as it does not volatilize off very readily. Boat is outside connected to the truck again today - 5th day in a row. At least I can now smoke that big old cigar next time out.

It may snow this evening and the wind is finally out of the NW and it is a strong wind. Maybe some birds will be out tomorrow. If not tomorrow, maybe Friday. After the opneer, there hasn't been too much to talk about although I have not been out near as much as past years.

Mark W
 
Geeez Pete---mustard gas--WW I ??? What are you see for ducks up there? We saw nothing on the Pestigo this past weekend.
wis boz
 
Jim, I use to use perc all the time back in the late seventies. We used it to clean pickled in oil pipe on the inside for hydraulic installations. We had a gallon of the stuff on the bench all the time. We dipped a rag full of it and pulled it though a pipe with a iron wire. Then some of the welder's who were using the same building were having respiratory problems. Came down to the fact that the fumes and the welding arc were causing a small amount of mustard gas. After that we had to clean the pipe outside. Now its like feon you have to have contained all the time. Ozone layer. It really did the trick for cleaning though. rust, oil, scum, clean as a whistle. Had a pair of gloves oil soaked washed them out in perc after they dried out like brand new.

Last week end on Sat lots of mallards not much else. Sunday wind changed from the South West nothing flying. Mon. wind really blowing out of the West Northwest. White caps on the end of the dock. When down several times to see if the boat was still floating. I use to go out in that. No more. I have a boat that will handle that but I'll have to launch that, which I will do for the rest of the season. The water is too cold to go swimming now. Forty miles North of here they have some snow on the ground. We have had snow showers but nothing staying.
 
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