Fire and Life Safety in your RV

Mac the Fire Guy conducted two seminars at the Six State Rally.  When we arrived at the session on Friday morning (the only session scheduled on Friday), he told us that this was the most important session that we could attend, and asked how many had attended his previous session on knowing how to get out of your motorhome in an emergency. When he noted that many of us had not attended that session, he asked, "Why didn't you come to learn how to save your life in case of a fire? What is more important than that?" -- Uh oh! It made me ready to listen for all I was worth!

The primary concerns of fire include overloading of outlets, certain types of refrigerators, certain types of transmissions (thankfully, our coach has a safer refrigerator and transmission), and tire blow outs on diesel pushers that sever the fuel line and block the main entry door (we have a gasser). He said that midships doors are safest (where ours is). In case of a fire, you have 20 seconds or less to get out; you need a plan that you know how to execute. Each of us needs to know where the fire exit doors are and we need to have operated them and practiced getting out. (In the other seminar he did, they evidently physically did this.) Mac said that the 12V systems in motorhomes are often a problem - they use a lot of components not used in households.

After this preamble, he said, "Be prepared, not paranoid." -- I was well on my way to paranoid... so was ready to be prepared!

Fire extinguishers: types are usually BC or ABC, referring to the fuel that they can be used on. A is for any material that leaves "ash" - wood, carpet, leather, humans - 80% of the RV is class A combustible. B is any liquid that gives of ignitable vapors; material inside serves to take away the air and cool so the vapors don't exist. C is electrical - helps "A" to burn; material inside the fire extinguisher is non-conductive. BC fire extinguishers contain baking soda. ABC contain monoamonium phosphate - highly corrosive when hot. If you use an ABC fire extinguisher to put out a simple fire like where oil has caught fire in a frying pan, you will destroy everything in the area where you spray it (keep a top handy to put out fires in frying pans!). Mac recommended that we only use ABC and BC fire extinguishers outside the rig.

If the fire is coming from the 12V system, each of us should know where the battery kill switch is and how to turn it off. He recommended that we keep that bay unlocked so we can get to it easily.

Both BC and ABC fire extinguishers pack down, especially when being carried in a motorhome that is constantly vibrating and bouncing. Every 30 days, we should tap the fire extinguisher with a rubber mallet to drive the powder down. Set it on a concrete floor and set on edge of bottom of fire extinguisher and drop it from an inch or two up - it should bounce if the powder inside is loose (bouncing is good). If you have fire extinguishers at home, they won't have the impact of vibrating and bouncing, but they will still pack down.

Mac said that the most important thing is to get an early warning that you need to get out, so the discussion then moved to smoke alarms. Smoke from burning food (that may often set off your smoke detector) is different from burning furniture. Most smoke detectors have ionization technology which is good for detecting active fires, but not as effective on smoldering fires.
Take a few minutes to watch this video:
http://www.today.com/id/49214422/ns/today-today_news/t/rossen-reports-popular-smoke-alarms-may-go-too-late-experts-warn/
The technology that will give you earlier warning in smoldering fires is a photo-electric detector; although these have been around for decades, most of the smoke detectors sold are ionization. There are smoke detectors that have both technologies - those are the best to get.

Now, in the motorhome, there are additional considerations that limit the field of what we should use - the motorhome is subject to heat and cold, vibration, etc. - so we have to look for one that is RV approved - which isn't listed on the packaging, but in the information writeup inside. He recommended the Kidde PI9010 for RVs. Mac also recommended that, especially for diesel pushers, that they install at both ends of the motorhome. Based on the configuration of our motorhome (big front room, small hallway, room in the back) - it is probably also a good idea to have two smoke detectors.

All CO detectors installed before 2009 should be replaced as they had only a 5 year lifetime. Starting in 2009, they have 10 year ones. CO detectors should be mounted high. Again, one specifically made for RV use is appropriate.

LP detector should go low (so having a combined CO and LP detector is just wrong!).

Mac also told us that we should have the LP gas turned off while traveling; things that work on LP gas are the refrigerator, stove, hot water heater, and heat. This would mean that we could not run the refrigerator while traveling unless we had the generator on, but he has measure on his refrigerator and in a 6-8 hour trip, finds that it only loses about 4 degrees.

We then went outside and practiced fighting fires. The use of the fire extinguisher can be remembered with the acronym PASS: Pull, Aim, Squeeze, Sweep.

Mac recommends having a road flare in the bedroom of the motorhome to light and throw out if you are going to use the emergency exit.

He also showed us another type of fire extinguisher that uses foam which would be very effective on small fires without destroying the contents around it - I think Aqueous Film Forming Foam - it bonds to carbon. It was much easier to use, so we got two of these for our motorhome and one for the tow vehicle.

I realize my notes may not be as helpful as hearing him was for us -- if you are an RVer and you're at a rally where "Mac the Fire Guy" is speaking, go hear him!