An Oregon City, Oregon, RVer has lost her home after her Little Buddy propane space heater caught fire on a chilly night. Darlene Liedtke says she tried to do everything right, but something went wrong, and her Little Buddy turned out to be more of an enemy.
Little Buddy fire—despite precautions
The weather made November 29 chilly in Oregon City. Darlene told local news media she wanted to fire up her Little Buddy heater for just a few minutes to add a little extra heat. Taking safety precautions, she cracked open a window, hooked up her Little Buddy to a propane cylinder, then listened and smelled for a potential gas leak. When all seemed OK, Darlene lit the space heater.
Liedtke told a reporter what then happened. “After a minute, it caught fire where the hose hooked to the heater and I threw it out the door with the tank and followed it and made sure it was out, and in the meantime, my RV caught fire.” While outside, Darlene heard a popping noise from inside the motorhome. When she opened the door, the rig was already engulfed.
Terrified for her two cats that were inside, Darlene managed to get a window open at the back of the rig. She reached inside, fishing and calling for the cats—to no avail. She then grabbed a garden hose and tried to quell the flames. A short time later, her oldest cat, 12-year-old Pixie, managed to escape the burning motorhome.
Firefighters did what they could
Firefighters did what they could, but as typical with an RV fire, things went up in flames in a hurry. Today, Darlene is still searching for her other cat, 1-year-old Penny. Liedtke says after the wreckage cooled, she sifted through the ashes, looking for any trace of Penny and found nothing. This has given Darlene hope that somehow Penny escaped the conflagration.
Aside from looking for Penny, Darlene Liedtke has other things on her mind. She’s left with a pile of rubble and, thus far, has found no scrapping business willing to haul it away. As to her experience with her Little Buddy, she says, “Don’t use propane. It’s fine for camping but not in here. I just thought I was being so careful and then it happened.”
Darlene scrapes out a living by waitressing and bartending. Her loss was not insured. Darlene’s son has set up GoFundMe page to help her get another RV.
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Does anybody have any thought regarding what cause the fire?
My guess is she was unable to tighten the hose correctly by hand. With a
a pair of pliers gently tighten it.
Cross threaded the tank maybe?
Sad story. Can’t tell for certain from the pix and statement, but it seems she had the heater hooked up to an external propane tank. IIRC, my “Little Buddy” instructions state that you can only use it indoors if it’s connected to a standard, screw-in 16-oz. propane bottle.
From the picture, you can see what appears to be a hose used for the external tank. Listening and smelling is not the way to check for a leak.
It was a tragedy, but not having any type of insurance makes no sense.
Yup.
I’ve got a Little Buddy hose connection to hook up an auxiliary tank. I’ve never used it, but I still have it.
I do not understand why people use these and electric heaters in campers. You are just asking for disaster.
Use your furnace, it’s not that much more and 10x safer.
So sorry for Darlene and Penny. Hope they will be OK. What, to me, stood out in that story was, “where the hose hooked to the heater.” It reminded me that all hoses & connections involving propane should be checked periodically, with soapy water, or whatever is best in today’s world. I’m not about to criticize Darlene, as the leak could have happened after she hooked it up. I have an old Little Buddy and did make a note to myself about what Chris said, when indoors, use the bottle. I bought my LB at a pawn shop without instructions. So, Darlene, your tragic loss did some good teaching some of us to avoid this by not using the hose inside.
The attraction of these heaters is that there is no draw on the house batteries. When boondocking this where they shine. We have used ours a lot running the hose out a windows. The hose connects via a “quick coupler” at the heater.
i wonder what “Big Buddy” response to this story might be??
Lithium batteries and solar panels have eliminated this excuse.
One of those unfortunate events of which I am willing to offer assistance without judgement.
I think the lesson here is don’t hook a Little Buddy heater to an external tank when inside your RV.
Not careful enough.
Thank you, Russ and Tina! Very sad. As of today (23:05, CST, 31Dec2024), they were well over $20,000 of the target $24,000. Poor lady. The GoFundMe page also says Penny did not survive the fire. 🙁 Happy new year!