This Has Never Been Proven.
But lots of people claim it’s true. Both cell phones and gas station carry warnings about this danger. There have even been TV reporters of cell phones starting fires at gas stations.
One story came out of New Paltz, New York, in 2004. TV stations reported that flames burst out around a twenty-one-year-old college student whose cell phone rang as he was pumping gas. “Firefighters believe the cell phone ignited vapors coming from the car’s fuel tank as it was being filled,” CBS News reported.
The claim is that the batteries used in cell phones can ignite the gas fumes while gas is being pumped into a car. But the fire chief in New Paltz later said that this story was not true. After further Investigation, he found that the cell phone was not the source of the fire.
In fact, the batteries used in cell phones are the same voltage as car batteries. And cell phone batteries deliver much less of that power at any one time than car batteries do.
Factoid
Static electricity caused by people’s clothes rubbing against the sides of their cars can cause a gas station fire. For this reason people should not get back into their cars while gas is pumping into their fuel tank.