By Russ and Tiña De Maris
A fireman’s camera shows just how fast a motorhome can go up in flames – even while firefighters are pumping water on it. This one comes from Contra Costa, California, where a Class A gets ready for the scrapyard. Warning for those with limited bandwidth: This video takes about 6.5 minutes to play out.
Save bandwidth while watching YouTube videos (this may not work on some mobile devices): How to watch YouTube videos using very little bandwidth.
#RVT939
Why are they only using one hose? If it was a house, they would have hoses all over the place. If they can only supply the one hose, just keep it from spreading to the neighbors and let the RV burn out – total the RV and easier to determine whats left that’s useful.
Why use more – this is a 100% total. So they aren’t saving anything. What’s the point?
I don’t profess being a fireman but was always taught: Direct water to base of fire and never “feed” a fire by exposing it to more air.
I was more than shocked to see these “professionals” doing the exact opposite. The hose man kept directing water to top/ceiling/walls and axe man kept exposing more areas for air to enter.
Looked too good for the boneyard. Looks typical of firefighters. Why not attack five where fire is ( the front end where the Windows where out already instead of a small hole on the side. I realize it was a practice run but I really don’t think much of the performance. Only one hose?
Wow, talk about an incompetent operation. We were allowed 45 seconds to don SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) and another fifteen seconds to get a hand line pulled and flowing water once the engine was stopped on scene. The one person assisting on the handline without wearing SCBA would be suspended in our department. The other person taking their good old time getting suited up would be written up at a minimum.
No one seems to have done a walk-around and size-up or the fellow on the handline would not have been seemingly surprised by the fully involved engine compartment.
With active fire present no one should be using a pike pole to open up the walls when the whole front was already open. We only ran with three people on an engine as the initial response and two of them would have been on handlines. At least their names are on their turnout coats ’cause those guys are going to get themselves killed someday or die of cancer from hazardous gas exposure.
I wonder how much flame was around the propane tank.
No, it was not salvageable and it looks like it happened at a storage lot or the owner’s company lot so at least exposures were minimized.
Horrible, the fire just will not go out, it keeps reigniting itself. What caused the fire?