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Fuel containers recalled over flame jetting can also be opened by a child

Hyperfuels LLC of Houston has recalled two small fuel containers that fail a federal safety test in two different ways. Both the methanol container and the ethanol container lack the flame mitigation device that the Portable Fuel Container Safety Act requires, which is the part meant to stop a flame at the opening from jetting fuel back out. The methanol container has a second defect: its closure is not child-resistant.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the action on September 24, 2026, as recall number 26-790. It covers roughly 124 containers.

Two containers, one missing flame arrester

According to the CPSC recall notice, the two products are a methanol container, marked “Methanol, 3, UN1230, II” and “Flammable Liquid,” and a one-quart ethanol container labeled “E98.” Neither has a flame mitigation device. Hyperfuels makes them in the United States and in Trinidad, and the same notice records labeling violations under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act on top of the two hazards.

The flame problem is the one the recall puts first. Without the device, a flame that reaches the spout can travel into the container, where it meets fuel vapor, and the contents can then be forced out of the opening as a burning jet. CPSC described the same mechanism in an earlier 2024 warning about imported fuel bottles, which said the missing parts are devices “that impede the propagation of a flame into the container.” That warning also noted that containers made after July 12, 2023 must carry such a device, and the Hyperfuels notice cites the same Portable Fuel Container Safety Act.

The methanol container’s markings are the standard shipping codes for a flammable liquid: class 3, UN number 1230 and packing group II. They tell a handler what is inside, which makes the missing flame device more pointed, since the label itself announces a fuel that burns.

The methanol container’s child-resistance failure

The second defect is narrower, and the scope matters. CPSC attributes the child-resistance failure to the methanol container only. Under the Poison Prevention Packaging Act, a closure on that kind of product is supposed to be hard enough for young children to defeat; this one is not, so a child who gets hold of the bottle could open it and swallow or spill the methanol. The ethanol container is recalled for the missing flame device and the labeling violations, not for its closure.

Child-resistant packaging has a track record outside fuel too. The same 2008 release credits it with having “saved the lives of about 900 children since the early 1970s” on aspirin and prescription medicines, which is the logic behind extending it to gasoline cans and, in this recall, to a methanol bottle.

The requirement has a long lineage in fuel safety. A 2008 CPSC release announced the Children’s Gasoline Burn Prevention Act, which required child-resistant closures on portable gasoline containers made on or after January 17, 2009, and in it Acting Chairman Nancy Nord described such closures as an added layer of burn protection for households. CPSC’s business guidance on portable fuel containers sets out the full list of obligations that manufacturers face.

The two defects put different people at risk. Flame jetting threatens whoever is holding the container near a spark, a hot surface or an open flame, while the open closure threatens a child who finds it later in a garage or workshop. A single design fix would not cover both, which is why the notice lists them as separate failures with separate federal rules behind them.

Sales channels from May 2024 to May 2026

The recalled containers were sold from May 2024 through May 2026 for about $4 each. Buyers could find them at The Asylum Automotive Store in Houston, on Hyperfuels.com and on Amazon.com, according to the recall notice. At that price and a count near 124, the recall is small in scale: spread over the 24 months of sales, 124 containers works out to about five a month, and it appeared in CPSC’s recalls feed under the heading for Hyperfuels’ methanol and ethanol containers.

CPSC’s own fuel container safety page treats the closure and the flame device as separate protections, and the Hyperfuels notice shows how a product can fail one test without failing the other: the ethanol container clears the child-resistance question as a recall ground yet still lacks the device that guards against flame jetting.

In the notice, CPSC counts the containers at about 124 and cites multiple federal safety standards: the Portable Fuel Container Safety Act for the flame device, the Poison Prevention Packaging Act for the methanol closure, and the Federal Hazardous Substances Act for labeling. The notice lists no incidents connected to the containers, so the recall rests on the design and labeling failures themselves rather than on a reported fire or poisoning.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.


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