Light some fluff from the tumble dryer and pop that in the pan of diseasal – it’ll act like a wick and then catch alight.

Prudhoe tip has a waste oil disposal if you are not allowed to light it up.

Apparently if you drop a match or cigarette into diesel it will just go out

If you do, might be a good idea not to leave the jerry can in the hot sun for an extended period of time.

Although I don’t know how hot it would have to be before it became flamable.

Fuel Flash point Autoignition temperature

Ethanol (70%) 16.6 °C (61.9 °F)[2] 363 °C (685 °F)[2]
Gasoline (petrol) ?43 °C (?45 °F)[3] 280 °C (536 °F)[4]
Diesel >62 °C (144 °F) 210 °C (410 °F)
Jet fuel >60 °C (140 °F) 210 °C (410 °F)
Kerosene (paraffin oil) >38–72 °C (100–162 °F) 220 °C (428 °F)
Vegetable oil (canola) 327 °C (621 °F)
Biodiesel >130 °C (266 °F)

Apparently if you drop a match or cigarette into diesel it will just go out

You can’t actually light petrol with a cigarette.

You can’t actually light petrol with a cigarette.

But if you dropped a match into petrol there is a very high probability that petrol vapour will ignite, causing further highly flammable vapour to form, despite the liquid petrol not igniting. There is no simular probability with diesel. Which I believe was the poster’s point.

Yes you don’t want to go anywhere near petrol with a match. My cousin once lost all his hair and eyebrows when he decided to use a match to see what was in a large drum he’d come across. I was referring to the cigarette and petrol just to emphasize the general lack of knowledge people have about things they deal with on a regular basis. Fortunately most people tend to over estimate the dangers which is a lot better than underestimating them.
But to show the problem I bet if you got a hundred people and asked them would they prefer to throw a lit cigarette into a cars fuel tank or drain the fuel tank 99 of them would say drain the tank with no idea that the cigarette could never light the fuel but that draining the tank without earthing the vehicle could theoretically build up a static charge sufficient to set the petrol off.

Moreover, there’d be a heck of a lot more petrol vapour in a recently drained tank, non?

Is the shed made of wood? if so I suspect its more likely some scroat sets fire to your shed than the fuel spontaneously ignites!

I think you misunderstand spontaneous.

When I do my fire fighting course (every couple of years) the only way they can light the diesel fo the simulated liquid fire is to warm the surface with a propane burner, usually for some time. Having said that, one it’s been burning a bit, it’s obviosully a lot more ready to re-ignite.

I’d just tell her indoors I’d used the diesel in the car, in fact I would actually use most of it in the car… (obviouslly I have a diesel car)

Oh and it’s not the hydrocarbons I’d worry about – it’s the biocides and additives.

6000 litres by a stock shed, really shouldn’t worry, greater chance of the spring water supply harming the animals.

Diesel just bloody stinks , I would use something else, apart from being nasty stuff to get on your hands . Plenty of other options.