The danger of fire is something many people don’t even consider a risk in a caravan. After all, how often do you see a caravan go up in flames? But when you consider that a caravan probably has a greater ratio of combustible materials per square metre than almost any other type of dwelling, the risk of fire quickly becomes a grim reality. The facts and figures bear this out. One fire brigade we spoke to, the West Sussex branch, was called to 38 fires in touring and static caravans in 2001, two of which resulted in injuries; they attended a further 46 in 2002, witnessing eight injuries and one death.
So great is the West Sussex Fire Brigade’s concern that it has begun a programme specifically to raise awareness of the danger of fire in caravans – but it seems the message still isn’t getting through. “The statistics we have compiled only counts the injuries that were treated in hospital,” the Brigade’s fire safety officer Chris Bishop says, “so they could theoretically be higher.” Then when you multiply these figures to account for the rest of the country you begin to see the size of the problem.

FIRE STARTERS
The causes of caravan fires are much the same as those in the home. However, due to the caravan’s small dimensions, its high wood content and its lack of partitioning rooms that could help to contain a fire, the speed at which a fire consumes its surroundings is alarmingly rapid. A burning cigarette in contact with curtains or upholstery could have the tourer up in flames in minutes.
You may feel that all the hi-tech gadgetry we crave in our modern tourers only increases the risk of fires. Not so. Figures show unattended cooking rather than mechanical failures of stoves and ovens is a one of the most common causes of caravan blazes.
Chip pan fires are particularly vicious – the tall flames from a pan full of burning oil are especially dangerous in a caravan, where the height between hob and ceiling is often less than four feet. Other, less common causes of blazes in caravans include electrical fires, either from failures in the appliances themselves or in their wiring.
Due to their compact designs, caravans also pose their own, specific, risks. If an electrical point for a kettle or toaster is located too near a gas hob, there’s a risk that the flex could fall into the flame and catch fire. Caravanners should also be mindful of the cushions they cast to the floor to make up the beds as they could end up leaning against the heater; though fire-retardant fabrics are now used in upholstery, there’s still the risk that the heat could set a cushion alight. Similarly, placing any other fabric over a heater to dry is asking for trouble.
But by far the most common cause of fires in caravans, says Chris Bishop, is smoking; smokers may fall asleep with a cigarette alight, drop hot ash or simply fail to extinguish a cigarette properly. That said, the National Caravan Council (NCC) attributes the continued enforcement of the Furniture and Furnishings Fire Safety Regulations to the relatively low number of reports of caravan fires it receives. “The regulations ensure any upholstered furniture or furnishings contain combustion-modified foam [a material whose construction is designed to slow burning], the outer layer of which is treated with flame-retardant agents,” explains the NCC’s director of technical services, John Lally. “The habitation standards [of the regulations] pay significant attention to quick evacuation by the user. These are just some of the regulations and standards that an NCC-inspected touring caravan must comply with in order to receive NCC certification.”
Quick evacuation may sound easy enough, but if the fire prevents you from reaching the door, you’ll need to be able to get out some other way. You should have an escape plan for every occupied sleeping area in the caravan, and make sure everyone on board knows about it. You should also ensure that all hinges and window catches are in good working order, and not seized up. And you should also ensure that any retro-fit or DIY features must not obscure these exit routes.

FIRE PREVENTION
The most common injury from a caravan fire comes from breathing in the smoke rather than from the flames themselves. “Smoke will kill you and if you’re asleep, you won’t necessarily notice it and wake up,” says Chris Bishop of the West Sussex Fire Brigade. “It’s a common misconception that you will. People also think that pets will wake them up. Well, that’s not true either – your pets suffer just the same as you do from smoke inhalation.”
The only way reliable way to catch a blaze in its earliest stages is to fit a smoke detector. Since May 1989, all vans from NCC-approved dealers are fitted with a smoke alarm. If yours isn’t – if it’s too old, or a Continental model, perhaps – they are inexpensive to buy from DIY stores, but always buy one with a ‘hush’ function, as making toast is bound to set them off. You should fit it high up, near the door.
The importance of the maintenance of smoke alarms cannot be overstated. Unless your van is in storage, the alarm should be checked once a week, and the battery must be changed annually – never wait for it to ‘chirp’ to tell you the battery is nearly dead. Just as you would check over your van’s hitch gear, wheels and tyres at the beginning of each season, work a fire safety check into your routine and give the smoke alarm a thorough inspection.
It’s vital that you clean the alarm after a period of storage, as dirt or a spider may have got into the little cone inside the smoke alarm which directs smoke to the sensor. This could inhibit smoke reaching the sensors and prevent the alarm giving that vital early warning. The remedy is to give the cone a gentle vacuum in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.
One of the best fire prevention measures, however, is simple common sense. Where possible, turn off your gas cylinders at night; if you feel cold and are on a pitch with electric hook-up, use the heater on the 240v electric setting, instead of running it on gas. Also, ensure that the rubber seals of the regulator, and the rubber hose leading from it, are in tip-top condition, and that there are no cracks as these are potential weak spots where gas leaks could occur. It is also essential that all gas appliances in the caravan are checked regularly for any faults. The inspection must be carried out by a CORGI-approved engineer; your caravan dealer may arrange this as part of your van’s annual service.
You should also ensure that your caravan’s upholstery is in good condition. The foam filling may be combustion-modified, but it isn’t completely fireproof, so if the fire-retardant outer covering is torn or frayed, fire will take hold of the foam much more quickly than it will with the covering fully intact. So even if you don’t mind the look of your worn upholstery, have it recovered for safety’s sake. On site, one of the best safety tips is to ensure that there is a six-metre or 20ft gap between your caravan and the next one; in the case of a fire, this is vital to prevent the flames from one caravan being picked up by the wind and reaching over to the next.
You should also find out what the fire-fighting arrangements are on the site. Also ensure that none of your vents are blocked from outside – as well as letting in precious fresh air should the caravan fill with smoke, vents also allow smoke to escape.
If you have a Continental caravan you should be particularly vigilant, as foreign tourers may not necessarily meet the stringent UK safety regulations. Says NCC’s John Lally: “The current increase in foreign import models in the UK market is cause for concern as not all units may comply with the regulations or relevant health and safety standards. It is vital that they check that the model has NCC certification before purchasing.”

FIRE FIGHTING
Our advice is leave this to the professionals. It’s simply not worth risking your life to save your van. The West Sussex Fire Brigade make it very clear about what to do in the event of fire: “The mantra we keep repeating to people is ‘get out, call the Fire Brigade, and stay out’”.
But if you are faced with a fire in its very early stages, you can attempt to put it out with a fire extinguisher – but only once everyone is already out of the caravan. Considering the vulnerability of a caravan to fire, it is alarming that manufacturers rarely supply a fire extinguisher or a fire blanket, so you will have to buy these yourself from any good DIY store; either product will put out a small fire, or buy you time to get out in the case of a bigger one.
Make sure you buy a dry powder extinguisher, which is a good general type as wet ones cannot be used for electrical fires. This one will handle burning upholstery and most other types of fire. However, you must never use this type of extinguisher on fat fires, as it will spray the fat – and the fire – all over the caravan. A fire blanket is a much better way of tackling this kind of blaze.
Always check a fire extinguisher’s expiry date before you buy it as a fire extinguisher past its expiry date may not work at all. The Caravan Club recommends that it should be of the 1kg type, meeting BS (EN) 31996; check, too, that it has a 5A and/or 34B fire rating; the small 500g cylinders are too small to be of much use. Keep it near the door, on the exit route.
Again, only buy a fire blanket that displays a British Standard mark. It will measure one square metre, and you can use it on any type of blaze. If your TV starts to smoke, or catch fire, you can smother it in the blanket. It won’t put the fire out, but it will keep it in check to a considerable degree, and thus prevent significant fire and flame damage. The fire blanket is also the first thing you should reach for if someone should catch fire. It is also good for use on burning upholstery.
Once everyone is out of the caravan, turn the gas cylinders off – but only if you don’t put yourself in danger by doing so – and remove the mains electric cable from the caravan. If it’s too dangerous, get away to a safe distance and wait for the professionals to deal with it.

IN CASE OF FIRE
If you do have a fire, get everyone out and call 999. However, you shouldn’t wait for the worst to happen before you contact with the experts; there are lots of places you can get information from before you go away. “Every fire brigade in the country offers free advice,” says Chris Bishop. “You can simply ring your local station and ask advice on any fire safety matter, whether it’s in the caravan or in the home.”
The West Sussex Fire Brigade has put much of its fire safety information for caravanners on the web. It’s well worth reading before you go on any caravan trip – visit www.wsfb.co.uk, and in the fire safety menu scroll down to ‘Caravans’.

IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU
In case you are thinking ‘it’ll never happen to me’ – don’t. That attitude can cost lives. In his career, Chris Bishop has attended more caravan fires than he would like to remember; one, in particularly, sticks in his memory “About 20 years ago, I was called out to a caravan fire. Unfortunately, there was a child fatality that time. She may well have lived if the caravan had a smoke alarm, but they weren’t commonplace then.”
Smoke alarms and other fire preventative equipment are now easily available and inexpensive, even if your tourer wasn’t built with it. So make sure that you have them on board at all times and that this equipment is regularly checked. And remember, if you have a fire in the tourer: get out, call the Fire Brigade, and stay out. Lives are always more important than caravans.