It’s funny how as soon as something is either invisible or disconnected by time from something else, it suddenly is a matter of belief for some people.
I’m glad we don’t hear debates about whether it is possible for an internal combustion engine to power a motor vehicle at highway speeds.
Unlike with gasoline, the ember of a cigarette is hot enough to ignite propane. However it's denser than air and would need to have a pressure valve actively leaking to create enough concentration to be dangerous
They don't blow up, but they will create a bigass torch that will spin them around some. You're not getting blown into pieces, but you're going to be going into the er with some bbq'd body parts.
There's a bunch of non-obvious hazards which exist around cutting into containers which have held fuels, including but not limited to:
An empty propane container could have an gas+air mixture inside it in proportions which could explode.
Any liquid residue in an empty fuel container can be vapourised by the heat of the cutting, creating a fuel+air mix which can spontaneously explode from the pressure and heat, even without sparks (think: diesel engine principle but instead of a 0.25L cylinder it's a 200L cylinder).
An empty gas canister can be contaminated with heavier oils/waxes that could build up over the years of refilling cycles, creating the same hazard as noted for empty liquid fuel containers.
Methods to reduce the hazard include:
Thoroughly washing the inside of the container before cutting (access can be difficult though).
Filling with water and cutting while full of water. (Container musn't be sealed, and the cutting method must be safe to use in a wet environment, and further hazards such as introducing oxygen into the container need to be considered).
Because the tank was almost empty. Who knows what happens if it's full, or overpressured, or corroded or something. Hiding behind a solid object would be my move as well.
yeah this will work but you basically have to create a fire around the tank while keeping it pressurized right? you have to bring the whole tank to the point where it overwhelms the relief valve.
She's already occupying more space than most people. Soon she'll occupy as much space as some people from the middle east have over the years. Can she occupy more space than a re-entry sort of volume expansion event? The world may one day know.