Safety, not just for RVers

As I mentioned in my last post, safety is the topic for today.

Without a doubt, the seminars that made the most impact on me concerned fire safety.  These two seminars were presented at the RV 101 Boot Camp and again during the Escapade and I attended them all.

They are presented by a former fireman and full-time RVer named Mac McCoy. He pulls no punches and is quite blunt about fire facts and what we must do to preserve our own safety.

Sure he addressed this information for those in an RV, but so much of it applies to our ‘sticks and bricks’ homes as well. In this post, I’m going to keep to that topic as I believe that most who read this are not RVers.

Early warning is a key part of surviving a fire. How can you react if you don’t know there’s something to react to? 

I learned that most of us have the wrong kind of smoke alarm in our homes. The wrong kind is the one that sounds an alarm only for a flaming fire and we need to know about smoldering fires as well. A smoldering fire can fill the home with deadly smoke fumes without setting off the smoke alarm! 

The one we need is a dual smoke detector that uses BOTH PHOTOELECTRIC AND IONIZATION SENSORS to detect both flaming and smoldering fires.

Please look right now to see what you have. Odds are you’ll have the one(s) that detect flaming fires only. When you go to the store to buy the right one(s), (which you’ll do right now, won’t you?), note that there are a lot of displays of the ionization-only smoke detectors still available on the shelves! 

This is one of the first things that stuck out as something that applies to everyone, not just RVers. I never knew this. 

So make extra sure you get the Photoelectric and Ionization Dual Smoke detectors. When I say dual here, I don’t mean both smoke and carbon monoxide! Kidde and First Alert are popular brands. Check your local ordinances to see where they should be installed in your home. 

Drive carefully. I’ll wait until you get back. : )

Hi there. So the second thing that really got to me involves the fire extinguisher. Those rated B and C are basically baking soda and a propellant. They make a mess but don’t hurt anything. 

An ABC fire extinguisher contains Monoammonium Phosphate, which is more corrosive than other dry chemical agents. The issue with these is that once the fire is out, you’ll likely have to replace whatever the powder touched. 

The propellants in fire extinguishers push out product at about 40 miles an hour. That’s so you don’t need to be close to the fire to apply the material but it also means that the material will likely get all over the place. 

You need to check fire extinguishers regularly to make sure they will work. Things can happen to make them less effective such as the dial that shows whether it’s good can have been installed incorrectly, or the lever could get pushed by mistake and release the propellant, which renders the extinguisher useless, etc. 

You can learn a lot about fire extinguishers online and there are likely YouTube videos on how to check them. You can also go to macthefireguy.com for information. He focuses on RVers but again, much of the information he provides applies to anyone.

Mac the Fire Guy also promotes a foam fire extinguisher and I immediately changed out all of mine for the foam ones because I was so impressed with how much better they are. And, the foam doesn’t hurt anything, including people and pets, so if my couch were to catch fire, that’s all I would have to replace because my fire extinguisher won’t spray corrosive chemicals all over the place.

I don’t know if foam fire extinguishers are commonly available in stores as they are a bit more expensive than the powder versions. I can give you the information on the ones I purchased if you like and that information is also contained in the link macthefireguy.com

Fire safety is an intense topic, I know. I’m guilty of not being prepared enough or practicing an escape plan with Evan when we were living in an apartment, house or condo. Mac, the seminar presenter, is very good at conveying a sense of urgency. For example, he points out that we have only 20 seconds to escape a 40’ RV that catches fire. 

Twenty seconds.
 
There’s not a whole lot of time for anyone to get out of a home fire either, right?

It’s not something one does casually, especially as adrenalin is likely flowing at an alarming rate. Those of us in earthquake country have learned that it’s important to train your adrenalin to react properly.

Because I am doing all this now, I feel justified in encouraging you and your family, including your pets, to put a plan in place. 

And practice, practice, practice.

The Learning Curve: Half a Bubble Off

It’s approaching the end of my stay here in San Diego County and I must say, I not only have learned a lot here, but I’ve got a laundry list of questions for the trainer at the upcoming RV 101 Boot Camp.

As a member of the RV club called the Escapees, I am going to Tucson on Tuesday to attend the Boot Camp followed by a weeklong Escapade full of seminars, socializing and fun. During the entire time I’m there, I will be boon docking, which is to say, I will not have hookups for water, sewer or electricity. That in itself will provide a rich opportunity to learn! As I imagine I’ll be busy from about 6:30 am until bed time, I’m not too worried about this other than understanding how to keep the refrigerator on. This could involve using the generator but again, I won’t be in the rig all that much and bed time is usually synonymous with quiet time so that option isn’t the best. 

The real answer is Propane.

So now I have to really learn about this. I know it’s used for BBQ grills but I’ve never done that so I have no clue. When I first got the coach, it had about half a tank of propane and now it has about an eighth of a tank. I generally use it to heat water for showers and dishes, and to cook when not able to use the solar stove. I never need it to run the furnace, although during the past week temperatures here have fallen into the 20s so I have begun to use that more often. But I do not comprehend the rate of use and, this is really bad, I don’t know how big the tank is.  Propane can be dangerous, too, so fire safety is definitely one of the seminars that I will attend.

Speaking of tanks, I could not figure out the capacities of the gas tank or any of the water tanks even though the former owner provided all the paperwork that related to this rig. Through Facebook groups I was able to get the correct number for the manufacturer to get that information for all except the propane. It was particularly important to know how big the gas tank is as I’ll be leaving with a quarter of a tank and a quarter of 75 gallons gives me a lot more than a quarter of 40 gallons. The difference is that I will make it to Costco in El Centro where I can fill up both the gas and the propane. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to figure out how many gallons the propane tank will hold at that time.

As for the refrigerator, it is very important that it be level so that it will operate correctly. Doing that involves moving the whole rig to get it as level as possible. I do not have an automatic leveling system wherein you push a button and voila, you’re level! I have several wood pieces that I can put under the tires as needed. Up until now, I haven’t needed to use them. But this campground is very hilly so I got the opportunity to figure that out.

There are little bubble levels all over the rig, including in the freezer of the refrigerator, and that’s the one I check first. The electrician who fixed it a few months back said I can be no more than three degrees off level. A bubble level doesn’t provide degrees so I make sure that bubble is as close to center as possible, then follow up with my iPhone level to verify. And the refrigerator has been working perfectly.

However, I still feel as though I could be in a Michael Jackson video. You know the one where he and the other dancers lean wwaaayyy over without falling? Yep, that’s what it feels like even though the level on my iPhone reads within three degrees. So what’s up with that? You guessed it! It’s question two on my list for next week.

Question three will be hoses. As I mentioned, temps have gotten very low and there were two or three mornings when I had no water, at least for the first half hour, due to frozen hoses. There are things to do to keep that from being a problem, but I didn’t realize that the weather app I used to check was for a nearby town that is at a lower, read: warmer, elevation, so I put none of those practices into play. I did quickly learn to make sure the electric tea kettle was full before going to bed so I could turn that on and make coffee in the morning. 

So I am indeed in the middle of a big learning curve but even so, this is a great life! Truth be told, there were days in the condo when the power was out for hours and hours and no one told any of us what was going on. The pipes in the adjoining units were very, very audible and it took a while for me to realize I was not going to be doused at any time when the neighbors used their own facilities. In any place we settle for however long, be it a home, a car, an office, or a baseball game, we all make adjustments to make the experience enjoyable, don’t we?

So off I go to Tucson to see if I can’t get that bubble to read true.