[a/s] FIRE

["Greg Ledbetter" <gregoryw@xxxxxxxx>]

I have put off writing about this incident because I didn't want to relive
the experience.  As you may remember we have had our Airstream less than a
month.  On our first trip we had a fire, thankfully only a small one.  I am
hoping someone can venture an opinion on the cause.

To begin at the beginning, when we picked up the trailer one of the
batteries was a new Interstate, the other an older one, a brand I don't
remember.  After storing it for a week I went back to pick it up.  The
batteries were dead, even though the kill switch was off.  I thought the old
battery may have been draining the new one so I bought a new Interstate and
recharged the other Interstate with a battery charger on an automatic 2 amp
charge.  I installed both batteries on Friday and left Saturday on a trip to
Netarts on the Oregon Coast, a two hour drive from Salem, about 7 miles
southeast of Tillamook.

When we arrived at the RV park I went down to register and Von went to walk
the dog.  She opened the trailer door to get his leash, saw smoke and came
running down to me.  I ran to the trailer, opened the door, saw smoke and
just then flames started licking up the front curtains behind the couch.  We
keep the fire extinguisher immediately to the right of the door so I was
able to grab it.  My anxiety was that it would not work, but it did,
perfectly.  When I fired it at the flames they instantly went out.  I kept
spraying under the window.  Then Von spotted smoke coming from the exterior
right side battery door so I went out and sprayed it with the door closed,
then opened it and sprayed inside.  I pulled the battery out.  The top was
melted, mostly around the ground post.  This was the battery the dealer had
installed originally.

We watched for 15 minutes or so for more flames and when none came we pulled
into one of the camp sites and very gingerly hooked up to the 110v.
Everything seemed to be okay, all the lights worked and no additional
flames.  We decided to stay but first went into Tillamook to a car wash and
used the vacuum to clean up the inside.  Most of the mess was from the dry
chemical fire extinguisher.  We threw away the mini-blinds and the front
curtain.  The worst damage is to the bottom of the couch where the foam
melted away, however with the back in the up position you can't see any fire
damage.

Thanks to the Airstream construction the damage was very limited.  The worst
will be re-upholstering the couch, but there is no hurry on that.  Had the
interior walls been the typical veneer or plastic I believe the trailer
would have been totally involved, maybe even while we were still on the
road.

Since then I have replaced the ground wire to the battery, a real chore.  I
had to cut the interior aluminum sheet metal and will eventually want to
replace that panel.  Again no hurry as it is covered by the headliner type
material which was only slightly scorched and can be easily replaced.

The insulation on the ground wire was melted all the way to where it was
threaded through a rib on the way to the 12v circuit panel.  That is
approximately 4 feet of #4 battery cable.

No other sign of electrical shorts.  The source seems clearly to be the
battery.  I checked the water in it when I first started charging it but not
after.  It charged for several hours before the automatic charger kicked
off.

Is it possible that the charge coming from the tow vehicle could have boiled
out the water in the battery?  There was still quite a bit of water in it,
but I didn't think to be very careful pulling it out and spilled a about cup
of it so I don't know if it was still covering the plates.

The ground and hot wire both had plastic shields where they connect to the
battery posts.

This was an experience I do not want to ever have again.  What precautions
can anyone suggest to prevent it?  I can just see looking in the rear view
mirrors and seeing flames coming out of the trailer.  Phew, makes me sick to
think about it.

By the way, the rest of the week end was uneventful but pleasant.  The RV
park is a very nice one right on the Netarts bay called Bay Shore.  It is
very tidy.  Highly recommended.  You can rent aluminum boats with baited
crab rings for $35 for three hours of crabbing, which is plenty of time
spent pulling up crab rings for me!  An interesting feature of all the sites
was a chain attached to concrete in the ground, used, I presume to hold the
rv's down in the strong coastal winds.  I've never seen that before.

Greg and Von
'88 29' excella
gregoryw@home.com