If asked for the worst ways to die, burning is probably pretty high on most people's lists. Even
if the incident isn't fatal, nobody wants to get burned. Imagine then, an invisible fire. You're
engulfed in completely transparent flames. Because you can't see it, you don't know how to escape it,
and worst of all, nobody will know how to help you, or even realise you're in need of help.
Methanol is a flammable chemical often used as fuel. Compared to gasoline, which has a carbon
content of around 87% by weight, methanol is only about 38% carbon. With much less carbon to burn,
methanol fires do not emit as much light as gasoline fires. Methanol burns with a
transparent blue light, enough to illuminate the dark, but it's practically invisible
in daylight. It also doesn't produce smoke. Methanol also has a lower rate of combustion than
gasoline, meaning it burns slower and doesn't get as hot. This means a methanol fire is technically
easier to contain than a gasoline fire - but if you can't see it, you can't contain it.
This is evident in the 1981 Indianapolis 500 pit fire. Rick Mears is pitting on lap 58.
While he waits for his crew to service his car, a refueling hose starts spraying fuel
before its connected to the car. This covers Mears, his crew and the car in methanol,
which ignites when it comes into contact with the engine. They are engulfed in invisible flames.
The crew flees, they can feel the fire, but can't see it - panic ensues. Rick Mears jumps out of
his car, he is on fire and after inhaling and feeling the heat go down his throat,
realises he must hold his breath. A safety worker tries to remove his helmet but catches
alight and runs away. He jumps the barrier and runs to someone with a fire extinguisher,
they try to put Mears out but catch fire themselves. They drop the extinguisher
and run away, leaving Mears to pick it up and try to extinguish himself.
Mears' fueler, having already been sprayed with extinguishers, has trouble alerting
the crew that he is still on fire. He flails around both in reaction to the burning pain and
in an attempt to signal he needs help. Rick Mears' father rushes to his son with a fire
extinguisher and puts him out, and the safety team manage to extinguish everything else.
Rick Mears and four of his mechanics were sent to hospital, and Mears had to have plastic surgery on
his face, particularly his nose. Thankfully, however, no one was seriously injured.
This is not always the case for accidents involving the combustion of methanol. In
2005 at the Butler Motor Speedway in Michigan, USA, 49-year-old Rudy Corsini
was working as a fuel man during that day's races. Corsini was in a fuel shed constructed of wood,
transferring methanol from one container to another, when suddenly there was a spark,
suspected to have come from improper wiring at the pumps. This spark ignited the methanol
and caused an explosion. Corsini was engulfed in invisible flame,
as all around him the fuel shed caught fire, igniting gasoline and propane.
Despite this, Corsini somehow managed to escape the burning building. A racecar driver who was
also a firefighter came to his aid, wrapping a shirt around his face to extinguish any burning
methanol and protect him from inhalation. This man pulled Corsini away from the scene and some
thousand spectators were evacuated as fire departments quickly contained the large fire.
Corsini was flown by helicopter to a burns unit at a nearby hospital. He suffered three-degree
burns to 90% of his body. Rudy Corsini died of his injuries the following day.
Methanol fuel is still widely used in racing, and one of the reasons is, believe it or not,
safety. As previously mentioned, it burns slower and cooler than gasoline - also unlike gasoline,
it can be put out with plain water. You'd think the fact that it's practically
invisible in daylight would make it much more dangerous, but actually, its visibility is
considered to largely be a good thing. The lack of flames or smoke means a
fire doesn't create a visual obstruction, which could be a huge problem on a racetrack - posing
a serious risk to safety workers and other racers. Of course the downside to invisible
flames is detecting them, as we saw with Rick Mears' incident. The level of confusion and
panic it inspires is much harder to quantify than its rate of combustion or temperature.
Methanol fires may be technically safer, but they're still terrifying. You could be on fire,
but when you look down, you don't even know where to start to put it out,
and neither will anyone watching you, they might set themselves on fire if they come to your aid
without realising what's happening. You might not know which way to turn to get away from the fire,
or avoid more sources of methanol, which is transparent in its liquid form, and all the while
you're breathing in invisible flames and burning your lungs. That, is the horror of methanol fires.