Dipsticks!

[YellowJacket!]

OK, this could be one for the Darwin Awards.
Pulled up to a gas station to fill YJ up and there were two female attendants at the storage tanks with the big long wooden pole checking how much gas was left in them.  You know, the big underground tanks at gas stations that hold thousands of gallons of highly combustable gasoline!  Yep, both of em had cigarettes in their mouths.
So when you drop a ling wooden pole into a gas tank and pull it out and its soaked with gas and you have a lit cigarette in your mouth, isn't that a bit dangerous?  Well, after I yelled at them to tell them that they could kill all of us, I was told "don't worry honey, we do it all the time...nothins gonna splode round here!"
I got back on YJ and rode to a different gas station.

David

[Re-Vision]

Pumped gas and smoked when I was a kid and I don't think there is a lot of danger.  The last time I saw someone smoking at the pump (Young couple on a motorcycle) asked them to put out their cigarettes, they refused and I went elsewhere. Irregardless of the risk, why take a chance. Gas explosion or lung cancer probably doesn't make that much difference to a smoker, I personally don't intend to let someone else take me with them.  BDC

[YellowJacket!]

This may be one for mythbusters but I was once told by someone that you can throw a cigarette in a can of gas as long as the vapors are well vented and the cig will go out just like its dropped into a can of water.  I really don't believe him, but, its the vapors that do burn. 
Vapors rising from the main tanks, vapors being vented from your tank while you are filling it will ignite.
On a side note (I'm into side notes for some reason today) I have a patient who wears oxygen at home and smokes.  She has been in the hospital three times this year for setting her face and chest on fire.  She fell asleep with her O2 on and a cig in her mouth.  caught her PJ's on fire which set her O2 tubing on fire which burnt like a dynamite fuse.  Third time wa a charm.  It killed her.  Many people thing if you smoke around O2 it will explode like gas or propane vapors.  It won't but it WILL make anything falmmable, like clothing and PVC oxygen tubing burn quite vigrously. (respiratory Therapy 101)

David

[arthurdent510]

Yea, I've seen people do demo's where they put out a light match in a tub of gas.  The vapors are what will get ya, but even then it has to be a rather specific mixture of fuel vapors to air, but that doesn't mean it can't happen...  I know the mythbusters have done cell phones while pumping gas, but never got anything to blow up. 

[Kiwi]

They did one on using a cigarette to blow up a car that was leaking gas.  It doesn't work, the mixture just isn't right.
Your still a moron to be smoking next to something explosive tho...