What to do with burning camper

tegu69 wrote:
http://www.keyetv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/video-rv-catches-fire-25126.shtml
Not sure how to do link. The story tells of right front tire catching fire on motorhome. Reportedly, the driver gets out with fire extinguisher and tries to put it out. He then goes back into the coach to get a second fire extinguisher, all the while his friend and her daughter are inside (apparently in the bedroom). The driver can not extinguish fire and is outside as good Samaritan pulls up. I am wondering why the two in the rear were not out, since the driver had time to get 2 extinguishers and if the passengers knew of the escape window. Good reason to explain to all occupants of the rv on how escape widows work.

The absolute number one thing to teach them is to GET OUT OF THE TRAILER before attempting to extinguish the fire. Sounds like they could have just walked out the door had they known earlier.

I'll tell you what...after watching that, I would not want an A with that front door and no other door out. Holy doodle.


Gary Haupt

A sad video with a happy ending. Perhaps RV builders should offer a DVD with emergency exit instructions for the specific windows used in construction. It could be kept next to the other instruction sheets. No really a new idea, since my MH came with a DVD on the surround sound system and a DVD basic owners handbook. Just a thought.

A DVD? Seriously? Who is going to put a DVD in during an emergency? I suppose watching it before each trip could be required, like in an airplane.

My new house, a manufactured unit, came with labels on every exit window saying not to remove the sticker and giving instructions for how to open the window and remove the screens for exit use.

I was not there, so I will never know what actually transpired between driver and passengers. But it does puzzle me how the driver could exit (twice) and the passengers could not. I don't know what the dynamics at the moment, but some thoughts just race through my mind:

My thoughts. Scenario 1:
"Honey, I need to pull over, looks like we have a problem with one of the tires"
"Do we REALLY have to pull over. Really! This will just put a crimp in our plans!"
"Yes, this will just take a moment."...
"Honey, you better get out of the camper, looks like the tire is on fire."
"Oh just get the fire extinguisher. I'm laying her sleeping and don't want to be bothered with YOUR problem!"....
"Honey, it's worse now, you better get out!"
"No dear, I know you have it under control. Why are you disturbing my beauty sleep anyway!"

My thoughts: Scenario 2:

"OMG! Probme with the front tire. I see smoke. OH Crap! A new tire is going to cost ME about $300! How am I going to pay for that. Well, I guess I better pull over and see the damage!"
"OMG! The darn tire is on fire! Quick, get my fire extinguisher! This doesn't look good. If it spreads, I'll losse the entire rig!"
"OMG! Extinguisher 1 did not work. Now, extinguisher 2 is going to cost me even more! Looks like the whole thing is now in flames! I wonder if my insurance is paid up to the moment. I wonder if they will reimburse me what I still owe on my loan. I wonder if I can claim this on my income tax."
"OMG, the whole thing is in flames... What ....?"
"Someone is breaking out my back window. Who the he** is he what the he** is he doing!..."
"OMG! I forgot about my family back there!"

I really hope either one of these 2 is not the way it actually went down. Still, something is simply not right in this story!

People act in many different ways under pressure and stress. We all like to hope and think we would act differently in the same situation. The guy may have thought his only way to save everyone at the time is to put the fire out.

My guess as to what happened would be:

The man realized something was burning, pulled over, grabbed an extinguisher and went out to put out the fire thinking it was minor. When the extinguisher didn't put it out, he got scared. When he ran back into the RV, he told the girls to get out, grabbed the 2nd extinguisher and went back out. The girls were afraid to go with him out the front door through the smoke, etc. and went back to the rear of the RV. Those windows are small and high up and the girls likely had trouble getting out on their own. Once the other folks showed up to help, they were able to get out quickly. The man likely thought that by using the 2nd extinguisher, he was giving the girls more time to get out the window.

I love that my clipper has the two cab doors, the house door at the back, plus the escape hatch over the cabover. But, I have wondered how difficult it would be to get off the roof by the front end. Maybe one of those fire ladders would be a good idea to have on hand. They're made to hook over a windowsill (would work on the roof rail also) for those high up RV windows. Keep it stored as close as possible to the emergency window.

It is difficult to understand peoples' actions under stress.
As a retired LEO Instructor, I firmly believe that you do
either what you are trained to do or you panic and often die.

The idea of a DVD is not off the wall as some here indicate.
It would be a good training tool to use BEFORE an emergency.
The big IF wound be getting the family / owners / users to watch it.

dee74 wrote:
People act in many different ways under pressure and stress. We all like to hope and think we would act differently in the same situation. The guy may have thought his only way to save everyone at the time is to put the fire out.

THIS!
as a retired firefighter/EMT, i've seen plenty of people get brain freeze or are unable to think, during emergency situations.

some people can process what's going on clearly and react appropriately.
others get tunnel vision and lose sight of the bigger picture.
and others become frozen with fear/panic and often become victims.