Every winter RVtravel.com readers are warned about RV space heater dangers. They’re often related to fires inside RVs that lead to tragedy. This is a first: In a case from Rapid City, South Dakota, an RVer put space heaters under an RV with tragic results.
Inside or out, RV space heater dangers abound
Last Friday evening, Denis Vochanskiy was giving his kids a shower when he heard an explosion. He hustled everyone out of his motorhome, and found the rig was on fire. Denis’ motorhome was the family home, so having his rig burn was tragedy enough. In the confusion, someone left the family dog, Molly, inside. Vochanskiy got the door open, and heard Molly gasping for air. He somehow managed to snag her collar and pull the distressed dog outside. Happily, she survived.
It wasn’t the same for the motorhome. Hundreds of local firefighters responded as the family’s motorhome burned to the ground, and flames caught a nearby house on fire. RV space heater danger struck again.
Live TV advice—Don’t do this with space heaters
A clearly upset Denis Vochanskiy was interviewed on TV by local media. He’d just lost everything in a material way. His advice, “Don’t put space heaters under your RV,” he told his audience. With evening temperatures in the area in the 20s, and lower by night, Vochanskiy apparently thought he could get the upper hand on Old Man Winter by putting RV space heater units under his rig. The speculation is that the heaters caught the rig’s fuel tank afire.
For more information on space heaters and RVs, click here.
##RVT1186b
Here’s your sign!
Yup..
I watched this motorhome burn a couple evenings ago from my place about 3 miles away. There were a couple of explosions early on and the fire was so large and intense that it looked like a house (or two) burning. Very glad everyone got out safely, including the dog.
Thank you, Russ and Tina! So tragic! Doing some things precludes a “do over.” I am thankful that all, eventually also including the family do, escaped safely. Happy new year and safe trabels!