Close call (fire) with water heater

Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the great counsel. I lit it again to observe it, watched a lazy orange flame take off, and smelled that same odd smell.

I then took the air compressor to it and blew out what only turned out to be a little bit of debris. However, it is now producing a much cleaner, blue flame with that familiar hot water heater sound.

Thanks again. I’ll chalk this one up as a learning experience and add blowing out the burner tube to the regular RV to-do list.