L. David Byers, 19, of Camp Hill, was filling up his Toyota Yaris at a BP station in Lower Allen at 2:45 a.m. when vapor fumes caught fire. He was killed after inhaling superheated gases from the flash fire, Cumberland County Coroner Todd Eckenrode said. A static electric discharge sparked the flames, a state police fire marshal said.
Byers' youth might have been a factor - many times younger people get out of a car without touching the door, which would act as a ground to discharge static electricity, said Bill Renkes, an attorney with the Petroleum Equipment Institute in Oklahoma. Renkes, who described himself as the only expert in the United States on fuel pump fires, said older, less spry people usually lean on the door as they exit.
Exactly what happened to Byers, an avid bowler who wanted to be a police officer, isn't certain. Upper Allen Township police Chief Frank Williamson said the station's surveillance video is not of good quality and it is hard to see if Byers got in and out of the car. Police said Byers was not smoking and his car was not running.
Renkes said he has studied the issue of fires at gas pumps for 12 years and in that time there have been nearly 200 fires which appear to have been caused by static electricity.
"There are 11 billion fill-ups a year," he said. "This is the second fatality we know of. That makes the chances of dying this way, what, two in tens of billions," he said.
Renkes has compiled a list of several dozen fires that caused injuries, most of them fairly minor, such as singed hair. Only a half dozen caused serious burns, and only one other case, in Oklahoma, caused a death.
It takes a very specific set of circumstances to set off a static electric fire at a fuel pump, he said. It sometimes happens when people get out of their cars, leaving the doors open, to begin fueling. They then get back in the cars, possibly sliding on nylon seats, combing their hair, putting on jackets, or doing something else to create static electricity. They then get out of the car without touching the door or the car and reach for the nozzle.
Seventy-eight percent of the victims have been women, perhaps because they are more likely reach back into their cars to reach their purses, apply makeup or escape the cold, according to Renkes. The fires usually happen in the winter months when the air is cold and dry, he said.
The incidents reached their peak between 1999 and 2002 and have dropped since, possibly because public relations campaigns such as those shown on the television program "Mythbusters" have alerted more people to the danger.
Incidentally, Renkes said, the idea that cell phone use has anything to do with such fires is an urban legend.
Byers' teacher at the Cumberland-Perry Area Vocational Technical School last year said his former student was quiet and helped mentor others. He had "a good heart" and would have made a fine officer, said Bill Page, instructor in the criminal justice program.
Byers had been working as a package handler at FedEx in Lewisberry and was a member, along with his twin brother, Michael, of a Saturday morning bowling league at Trindle Bowl in Mechanicsburg. The bowling alley was planning a benefit for him Monday evening to help the family defray funeral expenses, according to owner Karl Schweitzer.
Byers was a 2009 graduate of Cedar Cliff High School and the Cumberland - Perry Area Vo-Tech and had attended the Pittsburgh Technical Institute, according to the Parthemore Funeral Home.
Lower Allen police Corp. Jeff Huff taught Byers in the fifth-grade DARE program and again in middle school. Byers had recently accompanied one of the officers on his rounds, something the department sometimes offers to young people interested in law enforcement.
"It's just crazy to think these things can happen," Huff said. He has since talked to his family about being careful to discharge static electricity, he said.
