Awful pictures

This happens more often than we all think. Hopefully everyone got out ok.

Propane tank + fire = bang!

Almost certain. Your rig catches fire, RUN!

When our dealer did a walk-through on our old fiver he pointed at the fire extinguisher and said "See that red thing, that is what you run past on the way out if you have a fire!"

That said we have 7 extinguishers in the fiver and one in the truck.

That looks like a gasser and that the fire started in the front. When the fire got to the rear (where the LP tank was), the tank likely vented and created an even bigger fire. However, I doubt the LP tank had anything to do with starting the fire.

It is entirely possible the refrigerator started the coach fire, the propane tank was most likely not the origin of the fire.

Very rare for a propane tank to explode but it will vent. Lots of You Tube video's of the tanks venting as a coach burns. Looks like a flame thrower and if the tank was on the curb side of this coach could very well be the source of the secondary fires.

Hate to see a coach burn. My number one fear when on the road. Pretty much everything above the chassis will support combustion.

The unit next to me this weekend had a refridgerator fire. The FD sent out 3 trucks. My first thought was that it was an over reaction but when I thought about how serious the fire could have been and how close we were I am glad that they took it seriously. I was away during the fire so I would not have been able to protect my coach if it had spread.

I am shocked at how much combustible material there is inside my RV and most every other one I have looked at.

Saw a fire a couple years ago in a camp ground. It was started in the fridge. They used garden hoses and a few fire extinguishers but it was futile. The FD came and put it out and it sat there for the day waiting on the insurance adjuster.

Many years ago FORD got burned by some Pintos with the optional exploding gas tank.

Well there were some rumors of GM having the same problems with Pick Up trucks, and one TV network filmed a staged accident where sure enough the fuel Tank blew up.

An expert did a frame by frame and proved the cause of the fuel tank explosion on the GM truck... It was rigged to explode by a Special Effects engineer.

Propane tanks do not, normally explode.. to make them explode you have to get them very very very hot. A tank is usually rated for how long it can sit in the middle of a fire and not blow.

One of the newer tanks sout there is a semi-transparant tank made of man made materials I forget which plastic they are using. ON this tank you can check the level of propane in the tank by simply looking at it.

Well they built a fire under it and filmed it.. Sitting there, not exploding, Eventually it vented and jetted flame, and I do not recall if it ever did rupture and blow.. but if it did it took quite a while.

To make a propane tank blow you have to rupture it, this is next to impossible save in a very specific kind of traffic accident.. The exploding truck they yammer about carrying Propane.. was not carrying propane, the news article tells you what it was carrying, but it was not propane.

Now what can explode..... If a burner is left on but not lit, propane can build up inside the rv... If the concentration gets to the magic point and there is a spark, say from a light switch.... KA_BOOM!

NOTE SAME applies for a sticks & Bricks and natural gas.. EVEN IF YOUR HOUSE IS ALL ELECTRIC, there have been several natural gas explosions where the gas was indeed natural, it was not even piped in, in fact no lines in the area (Swamp gas is Methane, an explosive natural gas).

Looking at those pics in the link, if that LP tank was located in the rear & if it has exploded, there wouldnt be to much left of the rear of that coach body & you can see it is still standing at that point.

LP has some bad points & then there quite a lot of good, safety wise.
One thing about LP, those large RV tanks are heavy & thick made, so one could almost fall out of its mount onto the road & not explode.
One of the worst things that can happen in a fire with an LP tank, is if the fire is impending onto the top part of the tank, because that is the vapor area inside of the tank. When that area is super heated it will bleed off the built up pressure through the relief valve, but once the flame is high enough to start melting the tank, when it expands all it can & then burst open, that LP gas inside expands 73 times is normal state of frozen gas & will create what is called a blevy when the tank finely explodes.

I didnt spell Blevy right, but its been a while since I was a fireman & somethings I've forgot, but you can be sure if that RV tank had exploded, there would be RV part spread at least a 1/4 mile around afterwards.
In those pics, parts of the coach burned & then just fell down as they came apart.
Neil