More sad new of another RV'er who lost his life. About 3 miles from from my home there is a storage yard I go to sometimes to pull a friends trailer in and out. Something went wrong there yesterday, an apparent propane explosion in a MH. RV completely totally destroyed and multiple others damaged. In the news article there are some pictures, the video wouldn't open for me as my ad blocker did its job.I drove by there a couple hours ago and saw it was a later model Class A. Much of the debris had been cleaned up by now. All that was left of the MH is the bottom part. The upper half of the walls and the entire roof was blown right off the rig. Bits and pieces scattered everywhere.My heart goes out to the man who died, and to his family.RV Explosion news articleSome pictures including from above

Must of been a heck of a propane leak to cause that much of an explosion. Notice there was no fire.No statement identifying the dead person as the owner. Could've been anyone at this point.

That is why your rig has a propane alarm, and why you should make sure it is always in working order. (And especially why, if it goes off, DO NOT IGNORE/SILENCE IT!)Gas explosions are a real and present danger anywhere there is gas/propane.

azdryheat wrote:Must of been a heck of a propane leak to cause that much of an explosion. Notice there was no fire..Not really... I do not know the figures for propane but I do for gasoline. one pint of Gasoline has the power of several sticks of dynomite. The key is the air/fuel mix.. If you get it wrong (Short story follows) IT's Womp and a flash fire and well read short story folloing) IF you get the air fuel mix right. Read the original post.The story:Camper smelled propane found one knob on the stove slightly on so he twisted all the knobs.. Including one you should never twist under those conditions. Air/Fuel mix was off so the only damage was his pride and some hair on his legs.. Nothing costly. HE got luckyI use Propane. I feel comfortable around it. but RESPECT is the word.Serious RESPECT. Cause if you don't respect it.. IT WILL BITE YOU.Joke: (Also a true story)Question on a propane pump jockey test"What happens if you get the right air/propane mixture and there is a spark?Before anyone could answer I said:"You land two counties over"Class broke up laughing (This was test review)When class laughter died down the instructor said: Yes, Exactly. I am serious about that word RESPECT.

naturist wrote:That is why your rig has a propane alarm, and why you should make sure it is always in working order. (And especially why, if it goes off, DO NOT IGNORE/SILENCE IT!)Gas explosions are a real and present danger anywhere there is gas/propane.It’s not quite as dangerous as that.The Stoichiometric mixture of propane, the fuel / air mixture at which it can go ‘boom’, is ~24 to 1.If we use a fairly small, 24’ long, 7’ wide, 7’ tall camper it would have an interior volume (24x7x7) of 1,176 cubic feet. At 24 to 1 that would mean there would have to be 49 cubic feet of propane, that’s nearly 2 cubic yards of pure propane vapour. At far less than 10% of that you wouldn’t be able to breathe because of the amount of mercaptan in the air.

JaxDad wrote:naturist wrote:That is why your rig has a propane alarm, and why you should make sure it is always in working order. (And especially why, if it goes off, DO NOT IGNORE/SILENCE IT!)Gas explosions are a real and present danger anywhere there is gas/propane.It’s not quite as dangerous as that.The Stoichiometric mixture of propane, the fuel / air mixture at which it can go ‘boom’, is ~24 to 1.If we use a fairly small, 24’ long, 7’ wide, 7’ tall camper it would have an interior volume (24x7x7) of 1,176 cubic feet. At 24 to 1 that would mean there would have to be 49 cubic feet of propane, that’s nearly 2 cubic yards of pure propane vapour. At far less than 10% of that you wouldn’t be able to breathe because of the amount of mercaptan in the air.Check your math. The lower explosive limit for propane is 2.1%, not 4.1% of your 24:1. Upper limit is 9.5%, which is where there isn't enough O2 to sustain a flame front.

RV Storage yard explosion in Calgary kills man | Good Sam Community

dedmiston
Moderator
Apr 26, 2020
Very strange topic to bicker over.

RV goes boom. People sad. Everyone else be careful.

Closing tooic. Too much snark.
dodge_guy
Explorer II
Apr 26, 2020
JaxDad wrote:
dodge guy wrote:
Ok guys someone died and we are arguing about math?!!!!!
We don’t need math to know gasoline is deadly!

+50,000 people are dead and people are still arguing about whether to stay or not.

BTW, this thread is about propane, not gasoline.

Good catch on the propane and not gas. I was so sick of th stupid bickering even I managed to fudge up the cause.
down_home
Explorer II
Apr 25, 2020
I don't know of course, what caused the explosion but... our RVs or at least our,. MH does not have pilot lights and more than once getting too close we have tuned on one of the burners. We caught it and other than stinking up the Mh all was good. Alarm didn't even go off, I think.
The fans cleared it out quick.With pilot lights it would just heat up the place, and the Smoke Propane alarms would go off. The alarms wouldn't matter as apparently no one was around. Pilot lights wouldn't be a good idea either as you would have to leave a vent open all the time unless the mfg comes up with some forced venting that stays on from the stove.
All in all an all electric coach has one more thing going for it.
JaxDad
Explorer III
Apr 25, 2020
dodge guy wrote:
Ok guys someone died and we are arguing about math?!!!!!
We don’t need math to know gasoline is deadly!

+50,000 people are dead and people are still arguing about whether to stay or not.

BTW, this thread is about propane, not gasoline.
Lwiddis
Explorer II
Apr 25, 2020
Tragic.
dodge_guy
Explorer II
Apr 25, 2020
Ok guys someone died and we are arguing about math?!!!!!
We don’t need math to know gasoline is deadly!
JaxDad
Explorer III
Apr 25, 2020
Darryl&Rita wrote:
Check your math. The lower explosive limit for propane is 2.1%, not 4.1% of your 24:1. Upper limit is 9.5%, which is where there isn't enough O2 to sustain a flame front.

You are of course correct, HOWEVER, at 2.1% (the bare minimum to support ignition) there would be just a bang, possibly some minor damage, roof vents, a window maybe.

To get a result as seen above would require a full fuel load, 4% or more.

But even at 2% there would still be a minimum of 1 cubic yard of pure propane vapour inside, you would NOT need an alarm to let you know that was the case.
azdryheat
Explorer
Apr 25, 2020
So if I got this right, some don't know the figures while some think they do but others say they're wrong. I'll stick to 'heck of a propane leak'. Too funny. Later.
Darryl_Rita
Explorer
Apr 25, 2020
JaxDad wrote:
naturist wrote:
That is why your rig has a propane alarm, and why you should make sure it is always in working order. (And especially why, if it goes off, DO NOT IGNORE/SILENCE IT!)

Gas explosions are a real and present danger anywhere there is gas/propane.

It’s not quite as dangerous as that.

The Stoichiometric mixture of propane, the fuel / air mixture at which it can go ‘boom’, is ~24 to 1.

If we use a fairly small, 24’ long, 7’ wide, 7’ tall camper it would have an interior volume (24x7x7) of 1,176 cubic feet. At 24 to 1 that would mean there would have to be 49 cubic feet of propane, that’s nearly 2 cubic yards of pure propane vapour.

At far less than 10% of that you wouldn’t be able to breathe because of the amount of mercaptan in the air.

Check your math. The lower explosive limit for propane is 2.1%, not 4.1% of your 24:1. Upper limit is 9.5%, which is where there isn't enough O2 to sustain a flame front.
JaxDad
Explorer III
Apr 25, 2020
naturist wrote:
That is why your rig has a propane alarm, and why you should make sure it is always in working order. (And especially why, if it goes off, DO NOT IGNORE/SILENCE IT!)

Gas explosions are a real and present danger anywhere there is gas/propane.

It’s not quite as dangerous as that.

The Stoichiometric mixture of propane, the fuel / air mixture at which it can go ‘boom’, is ~24 to 1.

If we use a fairly small, 24’ long, 7’ wide, 7’ tall camper it would have an interior volume (24x7x7) of 1,176 cubic feet. At 24 to 1 that would mean there would have to be 49 cubic feet of propane, that’s nearly 2 cubic yards of pure propane vapour.

At far less than 10% of that you wouldn’t be able to breathe because of the amount of mercaptan in the air.

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