I came across this on another forum thought it might be good to warn people about the dangers of carrying fuel inside a car.
Here is an Extract from a WA mine site document.
"This story serves as a sobering reminder to anyone contemplating keeping a jerry can of petrol in their car.
In late 2010, a woman sustained very serious burns when her station wagon blew up in a small outback town in Western Australia. There were some plastic jerry cans in the rear of the vehicle
and petrol vapours had escaped in the heat of the day. Not realising this, she had climbed into the vehicle and lit a cigarette, igniting the vapours.
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This was the start of an extremely traumatic experience for the woman. For some unknown reason, the vehicle�s central locking system activated. People ran to help but couldn�t get her out of the burning car and she was still trapped inside when the jerry cans exploded.
The force of the explosion was so great that the front windscreen landed on the roof of a nearby building and the back windscreen landed on the other side of the highway. The bitumen under the car melted.
The heat forced back the would-be rescuers but they kept encouraging her to get out. Somehow she managed to escape from the vehicle, but not before suffering third degree burns to her legs. Her arms were burned as well and she sustained flash burns to her face. The car parked next to hers also caught alight and blew up.
That night, the Royal Flying Doctor Service flew her to the Burns Unit at Royal Perth Hospital. It took several weeks for her to recover sufficiently to be released from hospital. In the March 2011 issue of the local newspaper in her town, she said that her greatest wish was for others to not go through the same trauma. She and her family have experienced physical, emotional and financial stress as a result of the accident.
Someone else said it was also a good anti smoking message.
And another said,Being plastic jerrycans and while fuel approved containers I assume, they could rupture in a major crash and spill petrol inside the vehicle..nasty. bad enough you are in a crash worse if you are trapped and covered in petrol just waiting for a good samaritan with a fag hanging out his mouth to come try and help........BOOM!
Personally I would carry any spare fuel outside the vehicle.