Motorhome Fire Safety Tips

Fires are rare occurrences in motorhomes and caravans, but they still happen. And when they do, the risk to the vehicle and anyone inside is extremely high. This means you must be an expert in all things motorhome fire safety just in case.

We’ve written this guide with that in mind. Keep reading for our best motorhome fire safety tips.

Create a fire safety procedure for your motorhome

The simple truth is that most of us freeze up and are unsure of what to do when disaster strikes. This is perfectly natural – but it also highlights the importance of having a robust procedure in place to keep you safe in case of a fire.

Before you can create a motorhome fire safety procedure, you’ll need to carry out a risk assessment. This means:

• Finding the potential fire hazards in your vehicle
• Determining how you can detect and escape the fire
• Choosing which methods will best address each hazard

When it comes to the fire procedure itself, the most important step is to raise an alarm and get everyone out of the vehicle safely and as quickly as possible. Your procedure should also address alerting emergency services.

Once this is done, you can take measures to tackle the fire and save your possessions – but only do this for an early-stage fire and be careful not to let it get between you and your escape route.

Understand your fire safety equipment

While you’re best off getting to a safe distance once a blaze has grown out of hand, you can put some smaller fires out before they get worse and damage your property. If you’re going to do this effectively, you need to know the essential pieces of motorhome fire safety equipment inside and out.

Fire extinguishers

You should consider this piece of equipment an absolute necessity. While they’re fairly standard in buildings and motorhomes across the country, you should still pay careful attention to which type of fire extinguisher you need in your motorhome and how to use it most effectively.

Fire extinguishers are classified according to the class of fire they extinguish. There are six classes of fire in total:

• A – fires involving organic solids
• B – fires involving flammable liquids
• C – fires involving flammable gasses
• D – fires involving burning metals
• F – fires involving fats and oils
• Electrical – fires caused by electrical equipment

Dry powder extinguishers are one of the most versatile, able to put out type A, B, C and electrical fires effectively. That being said, they aren’t safe to use in confined spaces. Neither are carbon dioxide extinguishers. This means they aren’t the best types of fire extinguishers for your motorhome or caravan.

You should use a water spray or mist fire extinguisher for your motorhome instead. To use one, you simply point the nozzle at the base of the fire, then move the jet across the bottom of the fire until it is completely extinguished.

Make sure you buy an extinguisher approved by the British Approvals for Fire Equipment Fire Safety Register. You can read more information about the different types of fire extinguishers on the Fire Safety Advice Centre website.

Fire alarms

Fire alarms are your first line of defence and will warn you when there’s a danger of fire in your vehicle. There are three main types of fire alarms:

• Smoke detectors
• Heat alarms
• Carbon monoxide detectors

Each of these works in slightly different ways. Smoke detectors are ‘fire alarms’ in the literal sense – they discover flames by the smoke that they emit. Heat alarms, however, measure rapid changes in temperature.

Carbon monoxide detectors are particularly important. That’s because they indicate dangerous concentrations of carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas that may be present in your motorhome even when a fire isn’t. Moreover, they can detect types of fires that don’t emit smoke, such as gasoline or alcohol-based fires.

We recommend you get each type of fire alarm to thoroughly cover your motorhome. You can also get a multi-sensor alarm. As the name suggests, they combine different types of fire alarms into a single package – meaning you’d need to make fewer separate fire alarm purchases.

Be sure to regularly test whichever alarms you do get and store plenty of spare batteries in case they need replacing during your travels.

Fire blankets

Fire blankets are simple yet essential pieces of motorhome fire safety equipment. They work by smothering fires. This starves the flames of oxygen and extinguishes them before they can grow out of control. You can use them to tackle small, contained fires – the kind that usually occur in kitchens.

Be vigilant with appliances

Have an engineer check all of your motorhome’s electrical and gas appliances annually. When they malfunction, they become a serious fire hazard. In fact, data from the Office for National Statistics reveals that faulty appliances and leads caused almost 15% of all primary fires in 2020/21.

Get the right fire cover for your motorhome

You should take every step to make sure a fire doesn’t break out in your home away from home. Yet sometimes fires do occur, even with the best motorhome fire safety measures possible in place. That’s why you need to get the right protection for your motorhome just in case.

We can offer comprehensive cover that will give you the peace of mind you need to truly enjoy touring in your prized possession. Call us today on 0208 984 0666 for a no-obligation quote or email us at info@comfort-insurance.co.uk.