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Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Don't Let Your RV Go Up In Smoke

Gordon & Annette McInnes and their dog Ophelia (a French Bulldog) are from Winfield, BC, Canada. They happened to park next to us for a few days and shared some great stories with us. They have been full time RVers for 12 years. Gordon took this photograph in Yuma, AZ back in 2001. He recalls that it was a 34' Itasca and the fella who occupied it was frying something on the stove when his dog (tied up outside) distracted him with his barking. The RVer left his cooking and went outside to check on his dog. While outside, the frying pan caught on fire and his coach went up in flames. This photo was taken approximately four minutes after the coach caught fire. Fortunately no one was injured, but it gives you an idea of how fast you need to get out of your coach if it ever catches on fire. Don't waste time, don't take anything with you - just GET OUT NOW! Don't even think about going back in!! Alert your neighbors, call the fire department and get out of the way while they extinguish the blaze. The best thing you can do is to minimize the danger of fire in the first place. Be safe out there! Jim

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posted by Jim Twamley at 6/13/2007 09:37:00 AM

7 Comments:

  • Good advice; ALWAYS, no matter where you are, get out immediately! Possessions are not worth your life. Also, never leave anything cooking unattended.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at June 16, 2007 1:40:00 PM PDT  

  • I want to remind everyone that the little wimpy fire extinguishers that came in your RV, (IF ANY), are not going to be much help. Get some good ones. I keep three inside and another in the basement and one in the toad.
    we are always aware of fire having fulltimed for 5 years but the fire may be yours not ours so we are equipped to help you too:)
    Bebop

    By Anonymous Bebop, at June 16, 2007 3:22:00 PM PDT  

  • I am in the fire and safety business and it amazes me that they put those cheap, ineffective fire extinguishers in RVs costing tens of thousands of dollars. If you have a fixed nozzle extinguisher remember to keep it upright when using. Better yet, get an industrial grade 5 lb all purpose fire extinguisher with a hose. Keep one at each path of egress and one on the outside of the RV if possible. And remember, these have a range of 6 to 8 feet and closer is NOT better!!
    Most importantly, make sure your ionization-type smoke detectors work and as stated by others...GET OUT first!!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at June 17, 2007 8:42:00 AM PDT  

  • I own both a new 5th wheel and a vintage Winnebago Brave and people have actually commented about how many extinguishers I have in them.

    In my experience, The number one cause of a fire loss on an OLDER motorhome is a fuel or oil leak, followed closely by an Electrical fire that could not be contained.

    Engine fires due to old and leaky fuel lines are far too common and are easily preventable. If people think about it, they are pumping flamable liquid under pressure into a compartment with temperatures ranging into the hundreds of degrees. A tiny pinhole leak is all you need. Fuel line is cheep, hose clamps are cheep, and fire extingushers are cheep.

    But many times you can not get to the fire because it is in the engine compartment and you cant get to it because it is under the cover that you obviously DO NOT want to remove! There is a relitivly low cost solution from a company called AERO K I believe, and it is a special kind of extinguisher kind of like HALON but without the ozone depletion problems. A unit that would douse any engine fire I could think of is the size of a soup can, and mounted in your engine compartment can be either fired automatically or manually.

    One of the great things about it is the extinguishing agent does NOT attack electrical components like many of the other convetional agents. That is why it is used alot in computer installations. And unlike CO2 a person can survive in a space that it goes off in, because it does not remove all the O2 in the air. It works well for electical fires as well.

    Another thing that you should consider in an RV is a quick disconect for your batteries. Either the large plastic red style switches that allow you to select banks or batts or off, or even the "knife switchs" at the terminal post of the battery but you should have a way of removing power from your rig post haste. This allows you to reduce damage and fight the fire quickly without having the power to the overloaded/defective circuit providing heat for a re-ignition.

    As long as we are discussing Fire Extinguishers, you should have one stored outside your rig, in a compartment you can feel ok about leaving unlocked.

    You can mark it with a magnetic or adhesive Fire Extinguisher symbol from most hardware stores that is a bit less obtrusive than the "Fire Extinguisher Inside" stickers we see on 18 wheelers.

    I keep one in my propane tank compartment, which can not be locked. That way If I am outside I can always get to an extinguisher, even if I drop my keys, or cant find them in a panic situation.

    This hopefully will prevent what happened to a friend, who pulled to the side of a road in PA cause he smelt hot electrical wiring, and stepped outside to check it out, and locked himself out of his rig. All he could do is stand there and watch it burn, because he could not get to his Three extinguishers which were all in the unit.

    I will leave you with some words a wise person taught me...

    The best fire extinguisher in the world is PREVENTION.

    By Anonymous Matthew Elyash, at June 17, 2007 9:51:00 AM PDT  

  • That PICTURE of the flaming RV was worth a THOUSAND WORDS! I'm AWAKE & MORE AWARE NOW! THANKS! The comments were VERY helpful also.

    How was the Fire Extinguisher held in the Propane compartment?? Maybe Matthew Elyash could write again on THAT subject. I'll be waiting!

    By Anonymous travelgirl, at June 19, 2007 9:28:00 AM PDT  

  • This is just another reason why I don't cook. I'm showing my husband that he is so much safer in the long run, and it really is cheaper to eat out.:)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at June 19, 2007 10:40:00 AM PDT  

  • We had just pulled into an RV site outside Winnipeg, Manitoba on our way to Alaska and were relaxing when I decided to do some house keeping. I started with the bathroom and I noticed what smelled like elctrical burning. I mentioned it to my husband who didn't smell anything. AFter a few minutes he too smelled it. I started throwing everything out of the motorhome, some clothes, my computer, passports, anything I could quickly get my hands on. In the meantime He was on his knees smelling around the inverter area when he felt it hot. He took the cover off and it was smoking hot. He was able to turn off whatever needed to be disconected and he had to rewire that area of the motorhome. He is an electrican which sure turned out to be handy. It seems some wires had shaken loose and were touching each other creating a small fire which had we been traveling, we would have missed the smell and probably would have lost the motorhome and maybe our lives. We thank God we happen to have pulled in for the night to take a couple days off from traveling and this happened at that time. It was in the back of the motorhome and I nkow had we been traveling we would not have smelled the smoke.

    By Anonymous lynda doering, at July 29, 2007 5:31:00 PM PDT  

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