Motor Coach Fire Safety
by
Butch Jones
I would like
to thank all of the Dogwood members that attended our presentation at the
Rockahock Rally. I hope that we didn’t scare anyone so badly that they are
tempted to leave motor homing. Fire awareness and preparedness can be scary
stuff. However, it does not need to be petrifying.
As a result
of the presentation several members came up with some excellent
suggestions. As an addendum to the
presentation I have included these suggestions.
Mann Duff
suggested that we might want to keep the Emergency Bag in the towed so it will
be outside and ready when needed. If you do that make sure that you leave the
hammer inside to assist in breaking out a window or skylight and you have the
towed keys if you keep it locked.
Pat Allen
observed that if you or your spouse has the need for glasses, contacts or a
hearing aid make sure that those are kept with you along with your keys, cell
phone, wallet and purse. Even if you wear reading glasses you should keep them
handy.
Wilt
Greenwood has come across a small extinguisher with a sprinkler head that can
be placed in the outside refrigerator compartment to help extinguish a fire
before it spreads to the interior.
Installing a
suppression system in the engine compartment is a great way to limit engine bay
fire damage.
I have
thought about the fact that I am not getting any younger. Using the bed
comforter or spread as a rope or slide might be something to consider for
anyone that feels that they cannot climb down a ladder or climb out the window.
I’m sure
that many of you have had thoughts on this subject. Send me your ideas and I
will pass them along. Fire safety is an ongoing process. Even after you have
developed your plan you may change it as your situation changes.
The
following are two articles I came across which I found interesting.
Three killed in northwest
Arizona motor home fire
KINGMAN,
Ariz. - Three Lake Havasu City residents were killed in a fiery motor home
accident about eight miles north of the northwestern Arizona city Monday.
The
Department of Public Safety said the 2006 motor home towing a Jeep blew a right
front tire about 12:05 p.m. on Arizona Route 95.
"The
fire started on the right front wheel, which is directly adjacent to the main
doorway that you come in and out," Desert Hills Fire Chief Matt Espinoza
said. "In that case the primary entrance and exit was blocked by fire
which basically forced the occupants to the rear of the RV."
Espinoza
said the bodies of the occupants were all located in the rear of the motor
home.
The
victims were identified as John P. Thomas and Susan L. Thomas, both 63, and
Joyce Lowry, 73.
A right front tire blowout at less than 65 mph on
I-95 in South Carolina 2005
A right front tire
blowout at less than 65 mph on I-95 in South Carolina resulting in our 2000
Newmar Mountain Aire coach burning (it) to the ground, on Friday, April 22,
2005.
I was traveling Northbound on I-95, in the right lane and the coach was climbing
an overpass and at about 300 feet from the top, the right front tire blew out.
The coach immediately pulled hard right into the parking lane and it took a lot
of strength to keep the coach in that parking lane and not going off the right
edge of the road and into the grass and down the grade. I was able to regain
control and bring the coach back into the right traffic lane so that I could
continue over the overpass and miss the narrowing guard rail. After returning
to the right lane and while on the overpass, I was able to begin to apply the
brakes and slowly moved to the right and back into the parking lane on the down
grade. At this point I already noticed flames in the right rear view mirror. I
was unable to stop in the next 600 ft., because of the guard rail adjacent to
the parking lane, which would have made it impossible to open the exit door,
which is located in front of the right front blown, burning tire. I was able to
stop about 600 ft. past the end of the guard rail and off the road in the parking
lane. By the time I stopped, the flames were over the top of the exit door, and
it was now impossible to exit via the front door. As I attempted to get the
FOAM filled fire extinguisher from behind the passenger's seat, I noticed
flames between the front door and the passenger seat about a foot high in the
coach. I couldn't believe the volume of fire which had developed within less
that 1 minute from the time of the blowout. Without any further expectations of
possibly being able to extinguishing the fire, my immediate interest shifted to
how we were going to get out of the coach. Since the traffic was still
screaming by us without stopping, the bedroom emergency exit on the driver's
side was out of the question, so the bedroom non-emergency window on the
passenger side was the only one left. Exiting the coach via this window wasn't
bad, but the edge of the grass was on fire from the end of the guard rail, 600 ft.
back to the front of the coach and I had to jump clear of the fire. I jumped
first and beyond the flames, and ended up several feet down the steep grade
because of the overpass. I climbed back up to the flames and kicked dirt on the
fire with my stocking feet. Then I lifted my wife from the rear window to
safety. I had her run to the back of our toad and I proceeded to unhook the
car. Needless to say, that took less than another minute, and out came the
brake buddy, and we were out of there.
For the next 15 minutes we watched our coach burn with all our possessions,
jewelry, cloths, identification, money, computers, everything, until the fire
department arrived and by that time the coach was fully involved. The fire
department couldn't do anything but cool the ashes. I-95 was blocked for about
2 hours and we just stood there, thankful we were alive and trying to figure it
all out.
I wanted everyone to know, that I was very safety conscious, and never expected
that this could happen to us, but it did. I thought I had thought of everything
and prepared for most everything, but never expected it could happen to us.
With all the safety preparations we still lost everything. Now there is more,
the insurance issues, contents coverage. When you are a full-timer or a most
timer we carry a lot of STUFF. We have more than you think you have. Our
coverage may not be enough. And of course then there is the insurance for the
Motorhome itself. Believe me, I am an insurable person, and I still may have
missed things. My insurance is via Mendota, and my homeowner's in Florida is
Allstate. I hope I can help better prepare someone better than I was, if we can
ever be better prepared.
-Tony & Mary, Pembroke Pines, Fl. NEWMAR CLUB, DATASTORM
These bring it home that
we need to BE PREPARED.
We received our Kidde
Emergency Escape Ladder and Berkley and I tried it on his and Karen’s Dutch
Star as well as our Discovery. It worked well but was quite a bit longer than
needed. I cut 5 rungs off and I believe that will work better. I have an extra
rung in case the coach is on more of an incline.
I have included several
pictures of the ladder in the packaged and installed mode.
If I can be of any
assistance to anyone in evaluating their coach, developing their plan, deciding
which detector or extinguishers to buy, practicing their plan or anything else
relating to fire safety just let me know.
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