Plastic gas can fire forensics case

Forensic case where a sealed plastic gas can was empty after three years in storage because gasoline had diffused through the wall — relevant to a litigation about how much fuel had been poured at the time of a fire.

I had a situation once where there had been a big fire, and someone had a plastic gas can that had survived the fire. They wanted to know how much gas had been poured out of this gas can into the steel or aluminum tank of this machine. They went back three years later, and the plastic gas tank was empty. Why? Because all the gas had diffused through the wall of the plastic. It had been full — someone had actually opened it up and taken a picture right after the fire, and there was gas in it, and they sealed it and put it in storage, and came back three years later and it was empty.