Holtville LTVA fire
Had some real excitement here at the Holtville LTVA last night. Around midnight I heard some gravel shuffling, some talking and somebody calling for me. I opened the door to find a man walking in...
Forum Discussion
2oldman wrote:
The latest information I have on this fire is that the man was using an electric heater, powered from an inverter, powered from an oversize alternator powered by engine idling.
I'm not sure what component actually failed, but since he said the fire started in the engine, I'm thinking it was either the alternator itself or the wiring. It takes a lot of amps to run a heater, and over time that gets dangerous. If it was a cheap inverter, that's also suspect. I've seen cheapo inverters get hot running the smallest of loads.
I don't know if anyone here is doing that, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Redneck engineering. Not good. People need to do things properly or do do it at all.
Glad to see the man and the cat are OK. The van can be replaced.
Do something with the cat, it won't last long out there. He can go and get it later.
Charles
