Unless you enjoy the 19th century lifestyle the chances are fuel plays a big role in your prepping. After the SHTF you’ll need fuel to power vehicles, generators and a range of outdoor power tools and agricultural equipment. In the USA, the most common fuel is gasoline. That means most preppers have some stocks of it laid by for emergencies.
Unfortunately, there’s a problem with that. Modern gasoline is pretty high quality, with few impurities in it. That means it can be stored for a long time, if you look after it properly. It won’t last forever, though. Eventually, even in the best containers, the most volatile hydrocarbons in the gasoline will evaporate and escape. As that happens it loses some of its stored energy – and, worse, it gets harder to ignite. With only less volatile oil left, it won’t fire as reliably when your engine tries to spark it, and eventually it will get to a point where it won’t run an engine at all.
Avoid problems by keeping your gas in good, well-sealed containers. Fill them as full as possible, giving less space for anything to evaporate into, and don’t open them until you have to. Store all fuels in a cool place that doesn’t get direct sunlight, and avoid moisture as much as possible – water absorption is a bigger issue with diesel, but it can affect gas too. Finally, rotate your supply. Fill vehicles and generators from the oldest containers; when you go to the gas station, fill up the empties, not your tank. Taking these steps should keep your gas usable for at least two years, and possibly a lot longer.
What if some does expire, though? Gas is highly flammable, so it’s difficult and dangerous to dispose of. Luckily there are some other uses for it.
Mix it With Fresh Gas
If only part of your gasoline supply is suffering from age, mix it with some fresh gas that you know is fine. The fresh stuff will supply the volatile components needed for ignition; the heavier components in the old fuel will still burn fine once they’re ignited. If you’re doing this use as high a proportion of fresh gas as possible – and definitely no lower than 50%.
Use it in Stoves or Lanterns
Gas that won’t ignite from a spark can usually still be set on fire with a match or lighter. That means, unless it’s so far gone it’s thickened into shellac, it will work fine in a range of gasoline-powered devices.
A Coleman multi-fuel stove is a great example, and also a really useful survival tool. It’s not much bigger and heavier than a gas stove, the fuel is a lot more compact, and it’s as powerful as the burner on your cooker at home. Coleman lanterns are also great if you need light.
In an emergency, you can make a Benghazi burner – fill a paint can or large coffee can with sand, soak it with gas and carefully drop in a match. That makes a good heater, and you can even cook on it.
Kill Weeds
After the SHTF, most of us plan on growing the bulk of the food we need for long-term survival. Managing your land means controlling weeds, and that can take a lot of time. Some chemical help speeds it up nicely. The question is, how much weed killer do you have stockpiled? Not enough? Don’t worry – you can use some of that old gas.
Gasoline isn’t a perfect weed killer. It runs off into the soil and can contaminate the ground water, so don’t use it anywhere near your well. It also isn’t very discriminating – it kills pretty much any plant. If you have a weed problem, though, it’ll do in a pinch. Use it for spot treatment of stubborn weeds – don’t spray your whole yard with it!
Related: How to Get Rid of Poison Ivy
Poison Fire Ants
If you’re in the southern USA the chances are you know all about fire ants. Their bites are painful, and if you’re allergic they can be dangerous – plenty people have died from anaphylactic shock after being bitten. And another thing about fire ants is that once a mound is established, it’s hard to shift.
Good news – gas will do it. Even old gas. It can kill ants, and it also repels them. Slowly pour gas onto a fire ant mound, letting it soak in well. A lot of ants will die. The rest will bug out as fast as they can. Watch for them to set up a new mound, then soak that too. If you get a mound while it’s small you have a better chance of killing the queen. Do that and you’ll finish the colony.
Start Fires
Sometimes you need to get a fire lit but it just isn’t cooperating. Damp wood or high winds can make it really hard to get your fuel going, and that’s when you need an accelerant. Gasoline is pretty good for that.
Need to make a firebreak in a hurry, to help control a wildfire? Douse a strip of ground with gas, give it a few minutes to soak in, then light it. Soak rags in gas and use them to help damp firewood along.
Related: How to Get a Year Supply of Firewood for $10!
Improvised Weapons
If your property is under attack by looters, you need all the extra firepower you can get your hands on – and sometimes fire is the right word.
Need something with a bit more oomph to deter those thieves? The Molotov cocktail is a classic. Just fill some bottles with your old gas, stick a rag in the neck and tilt the bottle to soak the rag. Then light the end and throw it hard enough it’s going to smash on impact. Instant firebomb. You can also dissolve foam packing peanuts in the gas to make improvised napalm.
Restore it With Additives
Finally, if you have the right supplies you can just restore the gas to good condition and use it in your car or truck. There are additives you can mix with old gas that will bring it back to, if not as good as new, certainly good enough to run your engine.
Sea Foam and Stabil are gasoline stabilizers that will help preserve gas for longer before it starts to degrade. If it already has degraded they can at least partly restore it by restabilizing the separated components. Old gas is often contaminated with water, which can stop it igniting and even cause serious engine damage. HEET gas line antifreeze and water remover will sort that out.
Proper storage, and use of stabilizers, will do a lot to keep your gas in good condition. If it does deteriorate, though, additives will probably be able to make it usable again – and even if they can’t, there are plenty other things you can do with it.
You may also like:
EMP Proof Cloth. Easy EMP Protection For Your Car And Generator
10 Things Cowboys Carried With Them in the Wild West to Survive (Video)
You need to research and publish about “PRI-G” probably a 5 to 10 year gas life extender!!
PRI-G is an additive that is used for gasoline. PRI-D is used for diesel. Both are available on Amazon.com.
Several years ago, after seeing references to these additives online at survival sites, I called the company. The rep assured me that not only would these additives lengthen the useful life of fuel for up to 10 years, unlike other additives, they would restore old fuel, too, that was several years old.
I currently use PRI-G, but I have no information whether the ten year claim is accurate. Ask me in a few years. 🙂
I am at the 6 year mark with PRI-D in 5-50gal drums. I decided to test the fuel so I took 5 gallons out after adding an octane booster and it worked fine in everything. I added more PRI-D and will test it again in 5 years.
I too have used it in sealed 55gal drums…..at the 5 year mark, it works just fine in anything I’ve run it in. I try to get it rotated and used before, but I have a couple drums I hauled out this spring that were close to the 6yr mark….those got mixed with fresh fuel in a 500gal tank on the farm, and used like normal…..no ill effects I could see. PRI products beat Stabil hands down.
Learn what a GEET reactor is. Think what you want of Paul Pantone, the (in)ventor, but the system works. I have made several. You are using the exhaust heat to super heat the fuel in-to true vapor and thus almost complete combustion. It burnas almost anything mixed with alot of water. Heat breaks the bonds between hydrogen and oxygen, that makes the combustion very effective. You’ll likely run a 100kW generator with an old 500 cubic inch caddy engine..
The directions for Pri-G says it’s good for 3 years. All you need to do is mix more of it in the gas every year. I can attest to that. After 3 years, just to be safe, I pour it into my vehicle gas tanks. This is the best stabilizer I’ve com across and I always keep it on hand.
Great Topic, Hope we get some good comments. How do modern plastic gas cans compare to metal cans for long term storage of gas?
In a word, Poorly. Plastic is too porous to be satisfactory for long term storage. Yes, you can’t see it leaking, but the volatile hydrocarbons manage to escape anyway. See my post about Marine Avgas stored in Tacticial Air Fuel Supply containers and how much evaporated each day. It was eye opening to me.
Fuel (gasoline and diesel) stabilizers are just that, “STABILIZERS”. They can only slow down the degradation of the fuel, and can NOT restore bad gas. Suggesting that gas can be stored (without stabilizers added at the time you pump it) for 2 years is extremely overly optimistic.
https://roadscholars.com/gasoline-the-good-news-the-bad-news-and-the-ugly-news/
Article above reviews Stabil product…..which almost anyone that has tried to get more than a year of storage out of will tell you is crap. PRI products claim they can restore old gas to new specs, I don’t know if that is true, but I can personally testify that in sealed drums, gasoline will last 5-6yrs…possibly more, but I’ve done it up to 6yrs with no ill effect in carb or fuel injected engines. YMMV
As I indicated in a much earlier post, as a result of an extensive study conducted without a penny of taxpayer funds, I have determined that bottles containing cheap wine make better molotov cocktails than bottles containing expensive wine. Two Buck Chuck, which, incidentally is no longer two bucks but is now Four Buck Chuck at my local Trader Joe’s, has the kind of thin bottles that make ideal molotov cocktails. On the other hand, the same wine with Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve label is in much sturdier bottles. They might be useful in hand-to-hand combat as the glass is much sturdier but because the glass is so sturdy, they might be difficult to break as compared to the thinner glass in the cheaper wine.
So the lesson for today, Cricket, is if you think you are going to be deploying molotov cocktails after the end of the world, better to stock up on Four Buck Chuck rather than the Grand Reserve.
For those with a more delayed sense of humor, this was intended to be a humorous piece. Should I keep my daytime job?
On a more serious note, once applying the gasoline to the fire ant hill, I would allow it time to settle in and then set the whole thing on fire — give ’em a taste of their own medicine so to speak. I am not interested in getting them to move, I want to wipe the suckers out.
grits or ground rice will wipe out the entire mound. without poisoning the spot, perfect for when you get fire ants in a raised garden bed. The worker ants take it to the queen, she eats, they eat, whole colony dies. you have to make sure you put enough to feed the whole colony of ants. just like throwing rice at weddings causes the birds gut to explode, the grits do the same with the ants, i haven’t had much luck with instant grits though, must be the regular kind. i live in deep south along the gulf coast, i have killed thousands of fire aunt mounds this way over the years, it works great, sometimes second or even 3rd application is necessary if it’s a large mound or you didn’t put enough the 1st time.
LCC, always enjoy your comments. My question in relation to above comment is how does MD2020 bottles compare to Four Buck Chuck bottles?
R in FW: You know, I have never had a swallow of MD2020. Never even gotten to the point of picking a bottle up, so I have no opinion as to a comparison between the glassware of the two beverages. I would suspect they compare favorably. The ideal characteristics are that they don’t break in your hand before you throw them, so they must be sturdy enough to be able to leave your hand and travel far enough so that the flaming liquid doesn’t engulf you. Then they must be able to break hitting the weakest part of the target. You don’t want them bouncing off and then breaking on the ground.
I read one preppier novel where the heroes were filling incandescent light bulbs with styrofoam enhanced gasoline to make napalm hand grenades. I didn’t think that was practical. I think that light bulbs are too fragile for such usage. I think they are more suitable for incendiary booby traps where the victim is the one who breaks the napalm filled light bulb which is also ignited in the process of breakage. However, off the top of my head, I can’t think of a reliable igniter. I will have to ponder that.
Hope that answers your inquiry.
Thanks Grasshopper.
I object!! I followed the link to a ” video” on 10 things cowboys carried and ended up on another useless page selling “The Lost Ways” and no video. How about NOT doing that, please. Up
If you see this plant burn it immediately also leads to a video selling ‘lost ways’. Didn’t want to watch video to find out what should be burned and book can be sold through a side link. Don’t want to watch videos selling anything if it could be sold clicking on a side link. Still don’t know what it is that I should burn…
I object!! I followed the link to a ” video” on 10 things cowboys carried and ended up on another useless page selling “The Lost Ways” and no video. How about NOT doing that, please.
If just 1 gallon of gasoline will pollute 1 million gallons of water then gasoline old or fresh can be used to pollute an enemies water well, etc…
Now, looking through the Old Testament, I find that God sent The Flood to destroy all the evil men on Earth. So, if TEOTWAWKI is by the Hand of God I don’t think you’ll be around afterwards.
But, when I consider the Book of Revelation (and you really ought to read up on the Old Testament first, Genesis and Exodus and then 1st and 2nd Samuel and the Kings and Psalms, then get comfortable with the Gospels before you tackle Revelation), it seems TEOTWAWKI, if authored by the Hand of God, will be a time when evil is given free rein before Christ arrives bringing justice to all Creation, in which case you need to be careful because, while you’re out poisoning your enemy’s well with bad gas he’s probably going to be at your place raping your livestock and enslaving your daughters.
Those are not fire ants, by the way .
What isn’t fire ants, noone that i know of provided a photo of anything, so what are you referring to?
Edward: Did you read all the way through the article? There is a photo of red ants. I don’t know if they are fire ants or just plain old red ants. Red ants both in PA and out here in CA will bite.
yeah, i saw that picture but forgot about it, and of course right after i hit post as i was scrolling through, saw it again and tried to delete my comment but it wasn’t showing up.
Nm….What aren’t fire ant? What are you talking about?
Nm….What aren’t fire ants? What are you talking about?
In Fergus Mason’s article, he spoke of fire ants, but he pictured a different ant. I remember those bigger ants from childhood in Texas, gone now, displaced by other ants I miss them, though they’d bite the blarney out of you. Here on the West coast, Argentinian ants have taken over, hitch hiking on goods from the South. They say there is one solid Argentinian ant colony, from Mexico to Canada or thereabouts. One good thing about Argentinian ants, though they are a pain in the adze, (Read Gabriel Garcia Marquez’, “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”), they don’t bite or sting.
Your judgment of people on this site reminds me of 1 Corinthians 2:15
“But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.” and Mathew 7:1: “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”
You are telling people they are condemned to hell. Jesus says that you will be judged for the judgments you make, so what does that say about your fate? In Matthew 7:21-22 He said,” Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?”
Look at Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:14 “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (strait definition: used in reference to a situation characterized by a specified degree of trouble or difficulty. Example: “the economy is in dire straits”) Statistically speaking, most of the folks who wear the claim of being Christians AREN’T Christians.
Your condemning words, in response to someone who was making a joke, could effectively lead people away from Jesus, away from God. The third of the 10 Commandments says not to take the name of God in vain. Some interpret that as avoiding saying,” guldernit.” But that is the use of an expletive. The use of an expletive, if you claim the name of God, and say you are a follower, shows others that while you DID take the name of the Lord, you did so in vain, just as taking your aluminum canoe on the lake to shoot ducks, and you discharge your 12 gauge into the Hull, and drag out the first thing that comes to hand, a teaspoon, you can bail water with that teaspoon all day, (or two minutes until you sink), but you are bailing in vain. NOW, I use expletives, maybe a level of unredeemed self, maybe it works for the moment, and doesn’t besmirch me as a Christian.
God can be rigid or forgiving, but it is not our place to be rigid. Judge the actions, don’t judge the person. Sure, firebombing someone’s house, you have judgment and recognize, is wrong, but use your judgment, would making a joke about using a gas bomb condemn one to hell? A joke?
Now, I believe there are levels of Christian application. Most Christians believe in physically defending their homes, their family. But, in Revelation 13: 9-10, “If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” Now, it is a higher calling to avoid capturing or killing someone trying to murder or carry you away, but what about your wife, your daughter, your son. I think I would be the leader of my family, and protect them with a sword, or a 12 gauge. I will hold my head high, admit to defending my family, be prepared to be cast out, but I would plead for my family, please accept them.
I personally think it meant that if you use a sword you’ll die by the sword, physical human death, not permanent separation from God, a fate I am willing to suffer, but that doesn’t condemn you in eternity.
In Romans 7:14-25, is written, (I’m a bit tired, so I didn’t modify the 17th century writing of this my favorite version). “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 17Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
I revel in a passage from Revelations, chapter 12:10-11, “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. 11And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” I am not a Christian to “get myself saved,” though many start out that way. I am a Christian to serve God, and if it serves God to cast me away, so be it. I don’t worry about, “following the law,” If you pursued knowing the law of the Old Testament, you would be shocked, and would have to completely alter your life. I found a document with all the Levitical Law, it’s immense. No, more than 70% of what you eat now is forbidden. You can’t eat fat. You have to trim it all away. You can’t eat blood, which is fine, but some interpret that all the savory juices are blood, and must be discarded. I am learning of the health benefits of stock, and the benefits of a ketosis diet, utilizing fats.
But Christians live by faith, that they are redeemed from the necessity of being perfect by the Perfection of Christ, who carried the burden for us. I just give the word of my testimony when I am prompted to do so. I don’t follow the law, but I honor the law, and I am led to the law through my heart, and I am gently changed, over time, I view the things in my heart that think the wrong things, and don’t think the right things. My life has improved, born fruit. I don’t run around, “Prezzalrd,” (Praise the Lord,) instead of saying ‘Hello,’ ”That’s good,’ ‘Great idea,’ I don’t say, “I’ll PRAY about it,” I say I’ll think about it. I don’t gather in public and make a great show of closing my eyes, clenched tight for all to see, and us all gripping hands to cut the blood flow and making loud prayers. I keep my eyes open, conversational voice, I address Him easily, no thee’s and thou’s, no grandiose words, but as to a friend. My prayers are to God, separate from the word of my testimony for non-believers. Mine is my testimony, and God does the rest.
So many people trying to “Save” others by giving them extra rules. That’s common, even Peter with Jesus. Peter said Jesus couldn’t wash his feet, and Jesus said if he didn’t wash his feet, Peter had no part with him. (i.e.; Serve him, the greatest of us all is the one who serves us, not the one with glorious robes, fabulous mansions, Bentleys, and a Leer jet) Peter said, “Lord, not just my feet, but my hands too.” Human nature would have the early church saying that Jesus said that the servant of us all washes our hands and feet, adding to the injunction to only wash feet, but it was like a parable to teach them Christian fruition is service.
To demand people do God’s wishes, and in addition, YOUR wishes, is to lead them astray, and you would be responsible for anyone who rejected Christ because of YOUR extra rules.
There are people earnestly trying to, “Act Christian,” who go about giving tongue lashings. But also, there are people in the positions of Christian membership and leadership who are not Christians, but serving Satan. The Jesuits are an order of assassins, and are linked to the murders of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Their vow upon induction is a vow into sin and depravity. There weren’t countless priests who HAPPENED to accidentally have sex with countless children, subjugation of populations through rape is a strategy, like their torturing confessions from people and burning them alive in the Inquisition and their, “Counter Reformation.” We all lauded the spirituality of Billy Graham, but he was a 33° leading member of the Masonic Right, a Roman order, said to be linked to the Catholic order, The Knights Templar, an order of The Holy Roman Empire, (read The Roman Empire). The Holy Roman Empire of Catholicism is not a Christian organization, but there are some Christians in Catholicism, like there are some Christians in Protestant churches.
Matthew 7:16-20: “16Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
I read, and feel like sharing, some passages about bearing fruit. This has gone too long already. Tom
I agree with you pretty much 100%. well thought out and stated!
I remember a story from school.
A student discovered that each year, an anatomy professor asked only one question, and the same question, on the final exam: “Describe the anatomy of a snake.” This lazy student decided to sleep in each day and to memorize the anatomy of a snake in the last few days before the final exam.
When he got to the exam, to his horror, he found that the question was “Describe the anatomy of an elephant.” At first, he experienced blind panic. Then he pulled himself together and picked up his pen and began to write. “An elephant is a large gray mammal whose most distinguishing characteristic is its trunk. Its trunk in many ways resembles a snake. Now a SNAKE…”
Jeez! I thought the subject here was old gasoline.
You do know, aviation gas does not expire.
Put old gas in my 97 Ranger, which started running rough, had injector problems. No crap gas for my vehicle.
Filling station gas has additives. I’d never use that to cook with. I try to minimize toxins that will cause genetic mutation and mitochondrial damage. I hope to live comparably to my Father and Mother, Mom is 98.
All my friends who tout their cheap restaurant diets saving them money don’t last much past 70. Eating good diets is seen as liberal, used to be, liberals were eating all the crap food corporations were poisoning them with, conservatives were more likely growing gardens and raising livestock. Cans weren’t coated with substances engineered to shorten lives. Of course there are those like my old boss. I complained of silica dust, just voiced the hazard, (we should have worn masks), and he said, “You gotta’ die of somethin’.”
I have a vehicle stored, didn’t use a stabilizer, and used the partial alcohol fuel. Here 3 years have passed, it has been exposed to corrosive alcohol in the fuel lines.
Next time: . I will buy a can of gas without ethanol, or purge the alcohol from the fuel, (add water, which bonds to the alcohol, the gas floats on top, alcohol/water below, siphon out the pure gas), drive it until it runs out of gas, (not recommended for newer cars, the last bit of fuel with debris gets sucked into the fuel injection, wait until you are low on gas, still some alcohol), and add a gasoline stabilizer to the pure gas you have in the can). It is my informed opinion that fuel stabilizers do not restore degraded gas, but rather, stabilize good gas to make it last longer before it degrades.
Just read about PRI-G, I’ll check it out.
PRI-G (gas) or D (diesel)
Is the best way to go. It says 6yrs and I’ve gone 5
There is one more use for old gas that was in my original post and that is use it to make a torch like you see the villagers using in the old Dracula and Frankenstein movies.
Fergus overlooked that use in his article. Tie rags around a thick tree limb that you can hold comfortably in your hand, Use wire to tie the rags. If you use rope, it will burn through. Soak the rags on the end of the limb with gasoline. Voila! A torch that will burn while you are chasing the werewolves, vampires — whatever through the night.
Or use it as a self-defense weapon. A club with a flaming torch on the end of it will make more of an impression on a pack of feral dogs, wolves or coyotes than just a plain old club. Also might impress a gang of miscreants more than a regular club. A near miss with a club that is dripping flaming gasoline is a little scarier than a near miss with your plain old garden variety baseball bat.
This is my experience using fresh and expired unleaded gasoline in dual fuel lanterns and stoves, The Coleman brand was designed to use unleaded fuel temporarily until the preferred Coleman Fuel could be obtained. The heat on the generator tube will cause the fuel to cook and leave behind a heavy varnish that clogs the tube and orifice. This can occur in just a few evenings of use. You’ll notice a surging in the output and it’ll be hard to maintain, even leading to open flames. That has been my experience.
Thank you, good information. You mentioned the damage to components, but didn’t mention health issues. I think just about anyone doing anything can achieve 70 years old or thereabouts, although quality of life may suffer. People seem to think interest in health is liberalism or lefty. I am reading a great book by Joel Skousen, “The Secure Home”, who stresses a healthy life. What genetic damage can the additives in filling Station gas cause?, how about pump the exhaust into your house, how about then? The object of survivalism is to survive. One needs to educate themselves about the silent killers, the rattlesnakes, throughout the environment. It used to seem like such an inconvenient truth that most manufactured products are harmful, until I learned and realized that there is great effort and expense in making things so they sicken and kill us. I choose to educate myself.
Well, Tom, this is a survival website. Survival indicates to me civilization has for one reason or another broken down either on a temporary basis or a long-term end-of-the-world basis. In either event, your long-term life expectancy is going to be drastically reduced. You won’t find many people my age shortly after the end of the world. We won’t have the energy to survive or underlying medical conditions will become life-threatening due to lack of either medication or failure of life-sustaining medical devices.
Using gasoline to start a fire to cook raw meat is going to be low on your list of things to avoid to live a long life. You will be more concerned about where to obtain more meat to cook on the gasoline started fire or finding water to boil on the gasoline started fire. The fact that there are unhealthful hydrocarbons being release as the gasoline is burned off is really of minuscule importance in the overall struggle to survive.
Some posters really lose sight of what survival means. They talk about having to bath daily, not eating certain foods, deep breathing exercises all sorts of 21st century trivial concerns. Yes, in your daily day to day normal life, I would avoid using gasoline to start my charcoal briquets but in an EOTW situation, I would use gasoline in a second to get my fire started when the wood is wet and it is 40 degrees and there is a penetratingly cold mist falling.
Time to get real folks and think seriously about what END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT really means.
Preach it
I bet a great improvised weapon would be a flamethrower with dissolved styrofoam used to turn it into napalm. Just a thought.