Why you don't try to kill a spider on your fuel intake with a lighter

In one of the more hilarious news items appearing online today, a Center Line man set the area around a fuel dispenser on fire at a gas station. Why? No, he wasn't trying to burn the place down. He was attempting to kill a spider around his car's fuel intake.

Yeah, I know, it's so glaringly obvious that you shouldn't have an open flame anywhere near gasoline, especially at a gas station, but these lapses do provide us with excellent opportunities to learn — and laugh — at somebody else's expense. The footage from the gas station's security camera is priceless. (We may laugh, primarily, because the gas station's fire protection system seems to have kicked in and avoided an explosive climax.)

And yet, what about the spider? Is there a class of creatures more misunderstood than arachnids? They eat insects, and without them, we'd probably be knee-deep in bugs and therefore unable to drive cars in the first place.

There is no PETA that stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Arachnids, but if there were, we believe they'd take this moment to remind people that spiders are our friends, and seldom are they dangerous enough to kill a human being. Even if they are, there are ways to work around them or even remove them without killing them. 

For that matter, here's a handy article on how to pump gas. (We're looking your way, Center Line.)