Sad Event at Quartzsite (with a silver lining)

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
HueyPilotVN said:
That was a very intense fire.

I actually had three 300 A/H Lithium batteries in the rear storage compartment that survived the fire.

The batteries were not the cause of my fire.

Subject to a detailed investigation of the refrigerator boiler we will discover the true cause of my fire.
Click to expand...
I put a new fridge in because I didn't want a fire!!!!!! ironic when you think about it - especially as the old fridge was working really well anyway.

my fire was the electrical cabinet that had the victron and batteries in along with all the solar chargers etc...

just bad workmanship
 
Wow. I've ben inactive on the forum for a long while.... just checking back in to quite a story! Glad you are ok!!

I'm still using our Chateau class C...just not as often...and we still have the ARP fridge defend installed. I put it in years ago based in large part by folks here...Gary in particular. I've slept better with it

Our last trip out I was getting lots of shutdowns. It was throwing some sensor error, so I wiggled all the connections and it settled down. I really need to get in there and clean up that fridge plenum and make the contacts better.
The other thing I noticed was a fair bit of external surface corrosion on the fridge coils. It's a little concerning to me, but I see no practical way to get up in there and clean it up.

Because of your event, I'm also thinking about finally doing something I researched years ago, and that is to put an automatic fire suppressor system in there. Might put one in the genny compartment and also under the bed where the converter and all the wiring is.

Might put a smoke detector in there too!
 
HueyPilotVN said:
Paul has the boiler from the Refer and i have not heard yet about his detailed investigation.
Click to expand...
Do you expect to ever hear from him?

It was fairly clear the cause was the refrigerator from the beginning, but that doesn't say if it had the latest safety recalls and such, which is what I was mainly curious about.

-Don- Auburn, CA
 
My expectation was all along that unless Paul has a fire forensics expert look at the thing it would be hard to determine a specific cause.
 
Onyrlef said:
My expectation was all along that unless Paul has a fire forensics expert look at the thing it would be hard to determine a specific cause.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but it should be easier to determine if the ref had the latest safety recalls and that type of stuff.

-Don- Auburn, CA
 
I reckon he might be looking for evidence of a leak, and if it was from internal corrosion or external corrosion, or some other penetration
and I too am curious. My fridge is getting a few years on it and has some visible corrosion that I'm starting to get concerned about.
Because of Hueypilot's experience and this thread, I recently installed one of these

T Series – Self contained tubular fire suppression system – Blazecut

blazecut.com blazecut.com
thinking of ordering another because the one I ordered is on the edge of being too small for the space...and I suppose I'm a belt and suspenders kinda guy with things like this!
 
blw2 said:
Fridge Defend by ARP Protects your Dometic or NorcoldI reckon he might be looking for evidence of a leak, and if it was from internal corrosion or external corrosion, or some other penetration
and I too am curious. My fridge is getting a few years on it and has some visible corrosion that I'm starting to get concerned about.
Because of Hueypilot's experience and this thread, I recently installed one of these

T Series – Self contained tubular fire suppression system – Blazecut

blazecut.com blazecut.com
thinking of ordering another because the one I ordered is on the edge of being too small for the space...and I suppose I'm a belt and suspenders kinda guy with things like this!
Click to expand...
In my old Y2K Class C, I installed a Fridge-Defend on the advice of @Kirk.

-Don- Auburn, CA
 
I still contend that, given the intensity of the fire just aft of the reefer, it could have easily been a gas regulator failure, as the pic I posted in THIS post shows what happens when a regulator passes too much pressure to a LP (fridge) system.

Charles
 
I was wondering about the batteries from Bill's tools too. I guess the number of comments shows how many potential areas of concern there can be.
 
It is possible. I just put in a call to see if Paul has any new results as to the cause.

The intensity of the fire in the area just to the right of the fridge was in my opinion due to that being the exact location of a Milwaukee tool bag full of powered tools, one of witch, "a drill", possibly having a small lithium battery in the handle.
 
CharlesinGA said:
I still contend that, given the intensity of the fire just aft of the reefer, it could have easily been a gas regulator failure, as the pic I posted in THIS post shows what happens when a regulator passes too much pressure to a LP (fridge) system.

Charles
Click to expand...
I am beginning to believe that sleeping in an RV is more dangerous than riding on a motorcycle!

-Don- Reno, NV
 
CharlesinGA said:
I still contend that, given the intensity of the fire just aft of the reefer, it could have easily been a gas regulator failure, as the pic I posted in THIS post shows what happens when a regulator passes too much pressure to a LP (fridge) system.

Charles
Click to expand...
I never really considered the LP regulator ever being a problem in this way! Looking closer at that idea and info., I have a thought of something I might do.
I have a couple of pieces of carbon felt floating around in my toolbox
this stuff: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017VXBFD4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
You can hold a piece in your hand and hit it with a propane torch for a short time....
I'm thinking of putting a layer or two of this stuff on that surface next to the burner
It probably wouldn't last forever if the flame is prolonged, but it might buy some time. Maybe with a smoke alarm in the fridge chimney to give some warning, it might be a cheap and easy thing to do. I don't want to get too carried away in panic mode, but this fridge fire concern is something that weighs on my mind....family onboard and all.....
 
blw2 said:
I never really considered the LP regulator ever being a problem in this way! Looking closer at that idea and info., I have a thought of something I might do.
I have a couple of pieces of carbon felt floating around in my toolbox
this stuff: Amazon.com
You can hold a piece in your hand and hit it with a propane torch for a short time....
I'm thinking of putting a layer or two of this stuff on that surface next to the burner
It probably wouldn't last forever if the flame is prolonged, but it might buy some time. Maybe with a smoke alarm in the fridge chimney to give some warning, it might be a cheap and easy thing to do. I don't want to get too carried away in panic mode, but this fridge fire concern is something that weighs on my mind....family onboard and all.....
Click to expand...
It's not just around the burner. When I removed the RV refrigerator from my Sunnybrook trailer there was a burn mark on the wall considerably above the burner where the flammable refrigerant escaped and apparently produced a flame for a short period.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 770 (members: 28, guests: 742)

Forum statistics

Threads
132,054
Posts
1,389,615
Members
137,778
Latest member
ThiWanderer
Back
Top Bottom