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[at-l] Whisperlite Flambe

I'm off car camping this weekend with the kids, so I decided to test out
some of the gear I hadn't used yet this year.  The tent was out in the back
yard, the tarp was freshly seam sealed, and I was getting my MSR
International 600 going in the front.

Well... the pump wasn't pumping, so I read the directions and used some MSR
lubricating stuff (mineral oil, I think) on the little leather cup in the
pump.  That made it happy, so I pressurized the fuel bottle and checked for
leaks.  No leaks.  I primed the stove with alcohol (it's less messy) and
opened up the valve...  BIG MISTAKE!  Gasoline starts dribbling out around
the shaft of the valve.  A few seconds later it all caught fire, and I'm
off and running.

After parking my 5 year old a safe distance away, I ran into the house and
grabbed a fire extinquisher off the kitchen wall.  A couple of short bursts
later the stove was out (but still dripping gasoline).  After the flames
were gone, I sprayed water from a hose to cool things down (I didn't like
the leaking gasoline).  Finally, I depressurized the gas bottle.

Needless to say, the plastic valve assembly on the stove was in pretty bad
shape.  Interestingly, the aluminum MSR bottle was also shot - it has a
hairline crack right at the top.

Actually, I'm not too upset about what happened.  No one was hurt, it
happened in my front yard (not exactly a wilderness location), the house
didn't burn down, and it didn't cost too much to replace the pump (and I
may try to get MSR to pay for it anyway).  I did draw a few lessons from
the adventure that I thought I would share:

(1) Always test your gear before you leave, especially if you haven't used
it for a while.  What turned out to be an inconvenience could have been a
disaster.

(2) Just because the pump holds pressure, doesn't mean it is OK.  If I had
primed the stove with gasoline I would have noticed the leak BEFORE the
flames started.  I'll think twice about using alcohol to prime the stove in
the future, and will definitely prime with gas when checking the stove out
after a period of inactivity.  I may break down and reassemble the stove at
the beginning of each season just to make sure everything looks good.

-- Jim Mayer
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