A motorhome fire is a terrifying prospect. Not only do you have an enclosed space with limited escape routes, but you’re surrounded by wiring and gas pipes. In addition, the furnishings are largely made of plywood and soft materials that will all burn when subjected to the heat of a fire. Even flame-retardant modern furnishings will only resist for so long; with enough heat and time, everything burns. Make no mistake, motorhome fires are something you don’t want to encounter.
When you’re enjoying your tour at one of the best motorhome sites, a fire will be one of the last things to cross your mind – after all, they are, thankfully, rare. However they do happen and you really need to be aware of potential sources of ignition, how to prevent them, and what to do in the event of a fire.
I’m also taking a look at the kit you should have in your ‘van, from the best fire extinguisher for a camper van to a good smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector. This information could save your life.
The damage fire can cause
I have had first-hand experience of a couple of fires. The first one was in a kit car I owned, with some hastily added wiring that set alight and would not go out until I had ripped out all of the wiring surrounding it.
It spread rapidly and had I not been nearby when it started, the car would have been completely burned out.
The second was a fire in my father’s factory, which was caused by a spark igniting aluminium dust and burned the entire building to the ground.
Thankfully, nobody was hurt, but the fire consumed everything. It took several days to burn out, with multiple fire crews in attendance, and I had the task of photographing the remains for the insurance company.
It was a real mess of twisted metal girders, rubble and charred machinery. Almost nothing was salvageable and even the computers – which looked intact and had been well away from the main fire – were ruined by smoke damage. The underground drains were destroyed in the intense fire, too.
Fires in motorhomes are equally scary and we’ve even seen examples of vehicles parked together where fire has jumped from one to another and burned several to a shell. They were parked far too close together and not to the Caravan and Motorhome Club’s recommended 6m distance.
Smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors
Smoke alarms and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors have just one purpose – to alert the occupants so they can get out of the vehicle.
They’re a vital early warning system, proven to save lives. After you’ve read this article, go and check your ’van’s smoke and CO detectors.
If you don’t have both fitted in your vehicle, buy and install them – there’s simply no excuse for not having them.
Vehicles supplied by NCC-approved dealers should all come with a smoke detector – if yours didn’t, return to the dealership and insist they supply one.
To check your alarms, press the test buttons on the case and make sure they bleep loudly and act as they should. This is a pre-departure motorhome check you should do before setting off on every tour.
If they do not function correctly, replace them or renew the battery.
If you have an old smoke alarm or CO detector (often signified by yellowing plastic on the casing), replace it.
Only buy them from a UK store and look for a brand that you’ve heard of, such as Kidde or Fireangel, which complies with BS 5446.
Most new ones come with a 10-year battery life and cost as little as £15; £1.50 a year for fire protection is not going to break the bank, so again, there are simply no excuses here.
The battery in these models is often sealed for life, so you just replace them when they cease to work (they have a display that will indicate the end of their lifespan, or a flashing LED). Most models have a label indicating their required date of replacement.
On models with a removable battery, don’t be tempted remove the battery if it false alarms. Silence it with the button and then double-check its placement. No battery means no alarm.
It’s worth being aware of the various types of smoke alarm, too – ionisation, optical and heat.
Ionisation models are the most widely available and you will know if you have one of these, because it will have a ‘radioactive’ symbol inside the case or in the instructions.
These include a minute amount of radioactive material in their sensor, which reacts to small particles of smoke. They’re a fast-acting alarm as they spot the early signs of fire, but prone to false alarms from cooking.
Optical detectors use a photoelectric sensor to detect larger smoke particles than an ionisation model will, and work well on smouldering fires such as upholstery. They’re far less likely to falsely trigger with cooking fumes.
Some models feature multisensors, designed to alert you rapidly to the smallest smoke particles, and some claim to be resistant to false alarms from things such as burning toast.
Heat alarms do not react to cooking fumes or steam and are triggered by ambient temperatures of around 55°C or when there has been a sudden rise in interior temperature.
A heat alarm must not be used on its own, but in addition to an ionisation or optical smoke detector (smoke detectors react earlier).
You don’t have to use one type of smoke alarm – a couple would be ideal – but you do need to take care when placing them. The ideal spot is on the ceiling near the bed, but on many types of motorhome, such as campers, this isn’t always possible, so try to get it as near as you can on the ceiling or a high-mounted cabinet. Read the maker’s installation advice and follow it as closely as you can.
Unlike a smoke alarm, a CO detector is designed to detect the invisible, odourless gas that humans can’t breathe and which can rapidly kill a sleeping person.
CO fumes can be produced by incomplete burning of carbon-based fuels. So they can come from the gas system, or from barbecues or heaters. Never, ever bring a motorhome barbecue inside your ‘van or awning, even if it looks as though it is producing no fumes.
Only buy CO detectors that conform to BS EN 50291-2 (2019), the standard required for leisure vehicles, and place them at a height similar to your head height when sleeping.
What is the biggest cause of fire in a motorhome?
If you said chip pan fire or smoking, you’d have been right 20 years ago, but today, the main source of fires is either a gas system leak or an electrical fire. Gas system fires are generally caused by leaks and then some source of ignition, such as faulty wiring or a spark such as the ignition system on a hob, or a cigarette lighter.
Most leisure vehicles use propane or butane in their gas system (or LPG, which is mainly propane in the UK, but can be a propane/butane mix elsewhere in Europe) and while this tends to burn rapidly and flame out – unlike petrol, which explodes – you really don’t want a gas fire.
The easiest way to protect yourself from a gas leak is to ensure you have your vehicle’s habitation area serviced each year before the start of the new touring season. One of the tests that dealers always perform is a leak test and this is a vital early warning of any issues. If they detect a leak, they will advise you and fix it. So if you’ve never had a habitation check, do not pass go, book your vehicle in now.
It doesn’t matter how old your ’van is, fixings can rattle loose when it is being driven. It’s not as though Britain is pothole-free, is it?
Electrical fires are on the rise – one RV study in the US found electrical issues accounting for almost a third of all fires. In the UK, electrical fires are the largest cause of domestic fires.
But why? Often, it’s the result of overloaded sockets – daisy-chaining too many extension cords and devices to one socket can overload them.
Motorhomers don’t tend to run lots of high-power things on one socket and the risk is low if you’re plugged into a mains hook-up, because the bollard will trip.
But if you’re using an inverter to supply your mains voltage, take care not to operate too many heavy-drain items at the same time (things such as hairdryers and microwaves) and don’t use extension sockets.
Defective electricals
A bigger cause of fires in motorhomes is defective electrical products. The rise of online buying has seen a surge in sales of overseas goods, often originating from China, which are shipped direct and built to the lowest possible price and quality. If you have any products in your caravan that were shipped to you direct from China – not via a UK or European retailer – and came with poorly worded (or no) instructions, you should think carefully about their quality and safety.
Be especially careful with inverters purchased direct from China – we’ve tested these in the past and they can sometimes be dangerous boxes of mains voltage. Use a cheap 1500W inverter bought from an unknown brand and you could be gambling with your family’s lives.
Wiring fires are one of the scariest that you’ll encounter, because the wiring is often hidden behind furniture and the fire won’t go out until the battery source is removed or disconnected. It can reignite even if doused with fire extinguishant.
Types of fire extinguisher
There are many different classes of fire and many different extinguisher types designed to target these.
The key requirement for a vehicle extinguisher is that it can tackle as wide a range of the materials you’re likely to encounter in a ’van as possible. Types of fire are classified as follows:
- Class A: Inorganic materials, such as plywood furniture, textiles, paper
- Class B: Petrol, diesel, solvents and other flammable liquids
- Class C: Butane, propane, LPG and other flammable gases
- Class D: Flammable metals
- Electrical: Electronic devices, wiring and so on
- Class F: Cooking oils and fats
Ideally, you would want to find a fire extinguisher that can tackle all of these fire types in one unit, but sadly, not all fire extinguisher types will work on all fire types, so it pays to develop an understanding of which type of unit works best on the fire you’re tackling.
Dry powder extinguishers can tackle Class A, B, C and electrical fires, and were traditionally fitted in leisure vehicles. However, they’re no longer recommended, because discharging them in confined spaces can produce choking fumes. As well as these fumes, the smaller extinguishers that tended to be fitted often had a short discharge time – as little as seven seconds for a 600g extinguisher, for example.
I tested a couple of elderly 600g and 800g ones and found them pretty poor at tackling small fires – they just don’t squirt for long enough. The fire simply reignited after the 600g unit was spent. Bigger capacity is always better.
to be mounted near a door
These days, Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) fire extinguishers are recommended for motorhomes, rather than dry powder. AFFF extinguishers are rated for Class A and B fires, but not for flammable gases or electrical fires. Again, always go for the biggest you can – to give you an idea, a one-litre version will typically give 10 seconds,
a two-litre model, 15 seconds, and a three-litre, around 20 seconds.
The optimum positioning for your fire extinguisher is near a door – this allows you to exit the vehicle and assess the situation before grabbing it if you decide that you can safely try to tackle the blaze.
Fire blankets
AFFF extinguishers are not suitable for oil pan fires, so it’s important to have a fire blanket in your vehicle, too. These must conform to BS EN 1869.
The blanket should be located on the wall near the hob, or in an adjacent cupboard so you can rapidly deploy it. As always, get people out of the vehicle before you think of tackling the fire.
Electrical fires
Electrical fires are tricky to tackle with any type of fire extinguisher.
CO2 units work best, but these are unsuitable for use in ’vans owing to the choking fumes risk, so the best advice is to remove the battery leads (or switch off the cut-out, a wise addition to all habitation batteries) to remove the source of ignition, before considering dealing with the flames. And always exit the vehicle as the first step, before you begin assessing what to do.
Fire safety sticks
A more recent entrant to the fire extinguisher market is the Fire Safety Stick, and these neat devices employ a chemical reaction to produce the extinguishant – a bit like a rocket motor. They’re very compact, last up to 15 years and have long discharge times (often 50 or 100 seconds), making them ideal for motorhomes in addition to an AFFF unit.
Fire Safety Sticks are rated for Class A, B and C fires, as well as electrical and Class F cooking fat fires.
When you are choosing any fire extinguisher products, it’s important to check that they comply with all of the appropriate British Standards Institution testing – they should be suitably marked as such. Only buy them from reputable UK sources.
What to do if there’s a fire in a motorhome
Even if you’ve taken precautions and have all the right equipment, accidents can happen and fires occur. So what should you do in the event of a fire?
The number one priority is to get yourself and all occupants out of the vehicle as rapidly as possible.
Only from outside the motorhome and at a safe distance should you assess what to do next. A small fire might be worth tackling yourself with your onboard fire extinguisher, but they very rapidly take hold, so it’s only worth dealing with small blazes and only from outside the vehicle, squirting the extinguishant in, or throwing a fire blanket over the hob.
Call the fire brigade for anything other than a very small fire.
If it’s a base vehicle engine fire – which is rare – and you can see flames or smoke coming from under the bonnet, stop the vehicle somewhere safe, switch off the ignition and get all the occupants safely out, then call the fire brigade.
Never open the motorhome’s bonnet – the sudden inrush of air can accelerate the fire and even potentially cause an explosion.
With all fires, the number one priority is to get people out and a safe distance away. Vehicles and belongings can be replaced, lives cannot.
The verdict on motorhome fires
Motorhome fires are mercifully rare, but it still pays to be prepared, check your smoke and CO alarms and pack the correct fire-fighting kit. Equally, give ‘bargain’ electrical items, often shipped from overseas, a swerve. They might be cheap, but life certainly isn’t.
Looking for more tips for helping you stay safe on tour? Check out our favourite motorhome driving tips, where we share advice that will help everyone get the most from their tours.
Future Publishing Limited, the publisher of Practical Motorhome, provides the information in this article in good faith and makes no representation as to its completeness or accuracy. Individuals carrying out the instructions do so at their own risk and must exercise their independent judgement in determining the appropriateness of the advice to their circumstances and skill level. References to specific products are for illustration only and not intended as recommendation. To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither Future nor its employees or agents shall have any liability in connection with the use of this information. Double check any warranty is not affected before proceeding.
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