DOES HAND SANITIZER CAUSE FIRE CAUSE FIRE WHEN LEFT IN A CAR?
Rodgers Odhiambo and Celine Abuga
FALSE: HAND SANITIZERS CAN CAUSE FIRE WHEN LEFT IN THE VEHICLE
Several Facebook posts claim that alcohol-based hand sanitizers shouldn’t be left in a hot car because they could explode and start a fire. The rumor is not new, but seems to be circulating again as more people use hand sanitizer to prevent transmission of Covid-19.
The posts include videos and photos of burnt vehicles, with claims that the damage was caused by exploding sanitizer. But is that what they really show? And is it safe to keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in your car?
One video of a white BMW with South African license plates has been widely shared. Its description reads: “Sanitizer left in the car parked in the sun, the container exploded the liquid sparked.”In the video a man sprays water on the burning car with a garden hose. But the fire was not caused by hand sanitizer.
As local radio station Jacaranda FM reported, the owner of the car said claims the fire was caused by hand sanitizer were “not factual”, though the cause of the fire was unknown. The man’s neighbor, who filmed the video, clarified the incident in a Facebook post: “The car engine ignited and no one knows why. Definitely NOT HAND SANITISER”.
And a photo of what seems to be a badly burned car interior has been widely shared on Facebook and on Nigerian news blogs, also with the claim the fire was started by exploding sanitizer.
The photo was originally posted on Twitter by Raymond Muzembe, from London in the UK. He tweeted: “This image was a result of hand sanitizer being left in a hot vehicle. It’s flammable and at risk of exploding under certain conditions.
Africa Check contacted Muzembe, who said he had not taken the photo. He is a health and safety consultant and the photo was sent to him in an incident report. “As far as I am aware the incident was genuine,” he told us. But he did not say how he knew the damage was caused by hand sanitizer.
Fact-checking organization Full Fact found it was extremely unlikely that hand sanitizer would spontaneously ignite in a car. It said: “At temperatures below several hundred degrees Celsius, there would need to be a spark for alcoholic hand sanitizers to catch fire.”
This information was first published by Africa Check.
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