This was brought up several months ago by a man who yelled "Fire, fire" to his wife in their motorhome. She promptly picked up the fire extinguisher and used it to bust out the window and escape.
2004 Rockwood Roo 23B (new to us)
2006 Nissan Xterra
When we camp, it's DH & me mostly. Occasionally step-daughter (16) comes, though not necessarily her choice
Well I agree with all that was said, except the fire extuigisher. The kids should be taught to get out, not fight. We want them to only care about getting out of the trailer. To be honest if it "catches" you might as well throw the ext out the window, cause its really not going to do much.
1. Practice Exits
2. Define a meeting place
3. Practice Exits again.
4. Have good insurance.
When we teach fire safety at the firehouse, using the ext is a last resort. Especially kids. Most often they are not going to know when enough is enough and get the hell out. Most adults do not. When people die in a fire its because of 2 reasons(Most often)
1. No working smoke detectors or no smoke detectors at all.
2. Instead of getting out, they either try to stay and fight or go back in once out.
I am not trying to be a know it all by any means, I think the best practice is just get out and stay out.
mark
Mark, Becky, Cameron and Zachary
2005 Ford Freestar
2007 Jayco 17C
camcares wrote: Well I agree with all that was said, except the fire extuigisher. The kids should be taught to get out, not fight. We want them to only care about getting out of the trailer. To be honest if it "catches" you might as well throw the ext out the window, cause its really not going to do much.
1. Practice Exits
2. Define a meeting place
3. Practice Exits again.
4. Have good insurance.
When we teach fire safety at the firehouse, using the ext is a last resort. Especially kids. Most often they are not going to know when enough is enough and get the hell out. Most adults do not. When people die in a fire its because of 2 reasons(Most often)
1. No working smoke detectors or no smoke detectors at all.
2. Instead of getting out, they either try to stay and fight or go back in once out.
I am not trying to be a know it all by any means, I think the best practice is just get out and stay out.
mark
I think you bring up very good points and I agree getting out safe is #1 over all things !!!!!
2008 Chevrolet Avalanche Z71 2007 KZ Coyote 23 CFK 2008 Total nights camping = 27 Just Remember: When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane
Me (37)... DW .... DD (11) ... DD (9)...Dog (1)
The main thing it to get out. When the smoke detector goes off...do not investigate why it is going off...get out NOW!!! Time is your enemy in a trailer fire....after everyone is out, then size up the situation and decide what to do. If there is a fire you probability don't have enough extinguisher to fight it anyway. I have a large aluminum flashlight attached to the wall next to my bed, there is a emergency exit window next to the bed, the door is in the rear of the camper but with the flashlight any large window is an emergency exit. My son is between me and the door, if I can't get out the door, we grab him and go out the "emergency exit". I also would say keep the keys to your tow vehicle near you, if you have to get out take them with you. If there is a fire, move the truck, no reason to lose the trailer and the truck.
The other posters are correct, the factory extinguisher that came with my trailer is a joke. Get a couple of larger ones, keep one near your bed, one in the outside compartment and one in the truck. We have a saying at the fire house, "It's better to have it and not need it then need it and not have it".
Gary
Gary
Delaware
2006 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD Crew Cab Duramax
2006 Outback 30FRKS
Great topic, must practice escape plan next trip also I always test both detectors after we set up at camp and arrive home, and always carry spare batteries in storage.
True, getting out important!! But no trailer out there would meet any building code of the most lax county, and will burn faster than anything built that you sleep in. BUT...buildings that burn show get automatic fire suppression, and some home's are required to have them for sleeping areas. For $200 builders or people could put in system that would buy them time....install and forget about it. How many have put in anything that would go off automatically? I'd dare say less than 1/100 of people on here.
camcares wrote: Well I agree with all that was said, except the fire extuigisher. The kids should be taught to get out, not fight. We want them to only care about getting out of the trailer. To be honest if it "catches" you might as well throw the ext out the window, cause its really not going to do much.
1. Practice Exits
2. Define a meeting place
3. Practice Exits again.
4. Have good insurance.
When we teach fire safety at the firehouse, using the ext is a last resort. Especially kids. Most often they are not going to know when enough is enough and get the hell out. Most adults do not. When people die in a fire its because of 2 reasons(Most often)
1. No working smoke detectors or no smoke detectors at all.
2. Instead of getting out, they either try to stay and fight or go back in once out.
I am not trying to be a know it all by any means, I think the best practice is just get out and stay out.
mark
As a Firefighter myself, I agree 100%. Teaching children how to use fire extinguishers is not appropriate. It will only encourage them to use them when they shouldn't. Studies show that children often don't react appropriately to a smoke detector in the middle of the night (in spite of the training they've received) let alone expecting them to fight a fire. If they can't get out, there is no way that knowing how to use a fire extinguisher is going to save their lives. Sorry.
Great topic; hopefully it has made us all a little safer!
* This post was
edited 05/20/08 09:34pm by fdwt994 *
ALl 3 of our bunk ends have fire exits, and the large dinette window is one as well.
Although the bunkends unzip, I think it would be faster just seperate the bunkends at the velcro and slide right out. But to help in low lighting we always keep the zippers for the fire escape at the 12 o'clock position and the screen zippers at the corners of the windows.
fdwt994 wrote: As a Firefighter myself, I agree 100%. Teaching children how to use fire extinguishers is not appropriate.
I cant really see where safety training is inappropriate. Kids have the amazing ability to learn more than one thing, and the more information they have - the better. Evacuation is the first priority, if they are in a life-threatening situation; but what if they are not? Kids are taught to dial 911 in an emergency - does that mean that they will try that before evacuating?
I don't think anyone "expects" their child to "fight" a fire; It is just an easy lesson to teach them early in life.
One other thing to do if you have the opportunity should your RV catch on fire. If feasible, remove the propane tanks. Our fire department has been paged out on numerous RV fires and the propane tanks makes a very dangerous situation. If there are tanks located in storage compartments, please alert the fire personnel. If in a campground parked close by another rig, the radiant heat can catch their RV on fire as well !
I can tell you this, once a fire gets going in a RV, I doubt if you could stop it with several fire extinguishers. They are generally air tight and thus contains a lot of heat. Once an opening occurs, the air hits the heat and the RV is engulfed in fire.
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.... DD 
(11) ... DD 
(9)...Dog 
