Poorly stored gasoline can spontaneously combust, though. So more like a firebomb.

ridgeguy an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Gasoline doesn't do that. Perhaps you're thinking of the following?

What it does do is slowly polymerize, becoming useless as an ICE fuel in time, typically in a year or two. This is why backup generators should run on propane, which has no degradation mechanism.

	▲	duped 6 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		No, I'm thinking of improperly stored gasoline evaporating and combusting.

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not_the_fda an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

No it can't. To combust it needs ~ 500F. If you left it out uncovered in the open and allowed the it to vaporize with a spark nearby, it might explode, but thats not spontaneous combustion. Gasoline sitting in a sealed container wont spontaneously combust.

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swiftcoder 27 minutes ago | parent [-]

Didn't everyone have one of those old mechanic friends who liked to put the cigarette out in the can of gas to scare the tourists?

	▲	SV_BubbleTime 6 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		That is definitely one of those “it worked the first 50 times no problem” tricks.