Recreational Vehicle Wildfire PREPAredness
During the Oregon wildfire seasons over the last five years, our family has annually been in a fire risk and we keep packing our camper preparing to evacuate. Each time the fires have been contained, but I couldn’t help but begin doing research about how to protect our family from what is called a “Wildfire Burnover”. “Burnover is an event in which a fire moves through a location or overtakes personnel or equipment where there is no opportunity to utilize escape routes and safety zones. Burnover often results in personal injury or equipment damage.” A wildfire situation can last for hours, but the burnover time is normally only about 5 minutes. Since recreational vehicles usually have an installed water tank, I thought it might be possible to set up a sprinkling system mounted on the exterior of the vehicle to reduce the temperature of the vehicle and protect areas that are the most susceptible to catching fire.
We hope this research will help others who might be caught in a wildfire event. CampMaker LLC assumes no responsibility or liability for information on this site. The information is provided on an "as is" basis with no guarantees of effectiveness, safety, accuracy or usefulness.
General Guidelines for Wildfire Response
If you are in a wildfire-prone area, it is a good idea to have an emergency evacuation plan in place and to stay informed about local weather and fire conditions. When a wildfire is approaching, it is important to follow the instructions of local authorities and evacuate the area as quickly and safely as possible.
One way we have found helpful to stay informed is the application - Watch duty. It is widely used by professional fire fighters and is available for the web, Android and iPhone: https://app.watchduty.org/?
However, if you find yourself in a situation where you are driving through a burning area, there are several things you can do to increase your chances of survival:
• Stay in your vehicle: In general, it is safer to stay in your vehicle during a wildfire than to try to escape on foot. The metal frame of the vehicle can offer some protection from the flames and heat.
• Close all windows and vents: This can help to prevent smoke and flames from entering the vehicle.
• Turn on headlights and hazard lights: This can help other drivers to see you and avoid colliding with your vehicle.
• Drive slowly and cautiously: Try to maintain a slow and steady speed and avoid sudden movements or braking that could cause you to lose control of the vehicle.
• Park in a clear area: If you must stop, try to park in an area that is clear of vegetation and other combustible materials. Keep the engine running and the headlights and hazard lights on and be prepared to move quickly if the fire approaches.
• Dry wool blankets (100% wool) are helpful to protect you in a fire situation. They are inexpensive, readily available, and really fire resistant. Make sure they are a dense weave.
Wildfire Burnover Testing in August 2024
Gary Reysa, created a test laboratory to help determine the effectiveness of various wildfire protection techniques with camper vans and materials in a burnover event. I assisted Gary with the testing project in August of 2024. The details of our multi-day testing are available here.
These are our observations that came out of the testing process:
Insulation Protection - An insulated van exposed to 600 to 700 degrees temperatures can keep the temperatures inside the vehicle at a reasonable level (near 100 degrees) for the about 5-minute “burnover period”. This is even without any additional protection system. A lot of people have died when they abandon their vehicles.
We tested three types of insulation. The Polyiso insulation had almost no evidence of damage or outgassing, but Thinsulite and XPS had quite a bit of outgassing and smoke when exposed to 700 degrees F. One of the biggest benefits of having either the water sprinklers or fire-resistant cover treatment on the camper van is that it keeps the sheet metal temperatures down enough to limit outgassing of the insulation that is in contact with it.
Water Protection - The water protection worked well and it could probably be developed into a workable sprinkling system on the vehicle. You don’t really need to cover every square inch of the sheet metal with water because separated channels are enough to bring the sheet metal temperatures down via conduction through the sheet metal. The fact that we did not adequately account for the possibility of high winds needs to be remembered in developing the water spray system further. I built a prototype water system in 2022. We are developing version 2 of the system and will post more about it in the future.
Tire Sprinkling - It is feasible to keep tires from igniting with only a small flows of water – just enough to put a small surface film of water on the tire.
Fire Resistant Fabric Cover - The performance of the aluminum coated fiberglass fabric/cover was very impressive. The fabric was practically unchanged over the duration of the test. It did an amazing job of keeping the temperatures inside the cube low and minimized outgassing even when it was in direct contact with the sheet metal. Covers like this could be used in an extreme burn over and can be secured against the wind. Covers of this type have been used to protect buildings etc., so there is a track record of success with this material. A full cover could also cover windows and even the windshield. This would address the concern of exploding windows that can occur in vehicle fires.
Here is one available product that has possibilities: “CarShield is a cover for cars, trucks, and SUVs that incorporates state of the art fire-resistant and radiant heat reflective materials to protect against wildfires. FireGuard CarShield is fabricated from double sided Aluminized Fiberglass Fabric, the same material and design that firefighters use for emergency shelter. FireGuard CarShield provides wildfire protection primarily by reflecting the intense radiation which is the primary source of heat responsible for structures reaching ignition temperature.” https://www.fireguard.us/product/carshield/
The largest version of the CarShield might work to cover a 19 foot long camper van, but most people won’t want to buy a fire-retardant cover that costs $390 and weighs 50 pounds, if there is a small chance they will ever need it. The material we tested was lighter than the material for the car cover, so if a car cover was made of the lighter material it would weigh only 25 pounds and be less expensive. Even lighter material might be acceptable for a one time emergency use, but it would need to be tested.
Other Practical Usages - We assume it will be difficult for most recreational vehicle or camper van people to invest in this kind of system against the small probability that they will need it. We will do future testing with both the water system and fire-retardant cover to show how to keep a van cooler on a hot day and this could give people an idea of the benefits of these techniques other than the long shot that they will be need it in a fire. If a family was evacuating their home and didn’t use their recreational vehicle, the fire-resistant cover would be a good option to protect the vehicle while they are gone.
Weak Points In The Test Setup
Our test setup has some weak points when it comes to simulating an actual wildfire burn over. Some of these may potentially be serious and others may not matter for a camper van.
The main reasons things burn in wild fires are:
1. Ignited by flying embers from the fire (most house fires),
2. Ignited by intense radiant heat from fuels burning nearby,
3. Ignited by direct exposure to fire flames.
Our setup really only considers number 2, radiant heat, and does not consider embers or direct flame exposure.
In the case of a metal and glass camper van, it seems unlikely that it would be ignited by embers, as embers landing on the sheet metal or windows would not ignite the van. There may be a case for embers building up against the tires and igniting them? Or, building up under the van under the gas tank?
In the case of direct exposure to flames, we are basically assuming that the van driver will find a place to park that is farther away from fuels. This seems reasonable as parking lots and even roads can allow a good separation from the burning fuel.
Is Our Test Setup Intense Enough to Represent a Real Wildfire?
We are trying to achieve a thermal radiation level that is representative of a real wildfire. So, the questions are:
1) what radiation level do real wildfire burnovers produce?
2) what level of radiation is our test setup producing?
We understand from several references that radiation levels of 10 to 15 KW/sqmeter are representative of radiation levels in actual burnovers that have caused fatalities. Undoubtedly some fires are more intense than this, but this level appears to us to be representative of fires that can cause serious injury or death.
We were not able to directly measure the thermal radiation levels for our test setup due to the cost of the instrumentation needed to do this.
As a substitute for direct measurement of the radiation levels, we used this technique: When a small sample of dry wood is exposed to 10 to 15 KW/sm of thermal radiation, the surface of the wood will discolor and char in less than 5 minutes. In our testing, we attached a sample of dry wood to the sheet metal of the test cube and facing the burner. We adjusted the burner gas flow and burner distance from the sheet metal such that the wood sample showed surface char in the course of the test (usually 5 minutes).
References Regarding Wildfire Preparedness:
https://www.readyforwildfire.org/prepare-for-wildfire/
https://www.wikihow.life/Survive-a-Wildfire-While-Trapped-in-a-Vehicle#
https://emergency.vt.edu/ready/guides/wildfire/wildfire-during.html
http://royalcommission.vic.gov.au/getdoc/adec5bc7-6c36-4c66-a8f4-17f2bf7f285e/WIT.3004.003.0201.PDF
https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/What-is-burnover-in-a-wildfire#
https://www.iawfonline.org/article/engineering-a-safer-crew-protection-system/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ONQSjkRWi8
We hope this research will help others who might be caught in a wildfire event. CampMaker LLC assumes no responsibility or liability for information on this site. The information is provided on an "as is" basis with no guarantees of effectiveness, safety, accuracy or usefulness.
The videos and photos below are from version 1 of the fire sprinklers. We are working on version 2 of the sprinklers using copper pipe and brass nozzles.
