Todd Covini
06-12-2008, 12:41 PM
Got this from Jay Carley today:
++++++++++++++++++++
On Saturday night our motor coach was destroyed by fire in the hanger where we had it stored. The unit was plugged in to power the onboard battery charger, and the refrigerator was the only appliance that was operating.
This fire completely destroyed our coach, a neighbors coach, both of our Allison cars, two vintage truck and tons of shop equipment.
The point of this message is to notify everyone that has a motor coach or RV of any sort to check your refrigerator for recall. Both Dometic and Norcold have nation wide recalls for units going back to 1999. My coach had one of the model refrigerators that were listed as potential of fire. We were never notified of any recall, and thus had no idea of the potential of the risk. The potential of fire occurs during operation of the refrigerator while connected to shore power or on generator power. I have seen nothing that has indicated the risk while the units are running on gas.
Even if you are the original owner of your coach and RV, I know you would think that you will be notified of recalls. Not so in our case. We are the original owners and have not seen a recall notice from the coach manufacture or the refrigerator manufacture. We received one recall from Freightliner on the chassis the first year, but nothing since. Infact, there was a factory recall issued on our coach in September of 2005. Our coach was at the dealership for three weeks in December of 2005 and there was no mention of this recall.
My coach was a 2005 Winnebago Journey 36 foot diesel pusher. Since the fire, I have also found out that there was a recall by Winnebago for improper venting of the refrigerator that could cause a fire. The recall number for this particular recall is Campaign #05V407000.
I am truly thankful that I was not using the coach when the fire occurred. Please, please check your RVs for this life safety concern. Loosing our coach and race cars has been difficult. I cant imagine what this would be like if someone had been killed or seriously injured.
We have not been given an exact cause of this fire, but the insurance companies are looking at the refrigerator as a significant cause. Please do the research and verify that you and your family are not at risk. This could very easily have happened track side while we were asleep. There are nearly 4000 documented RV fire every year and many result in loose of life.
Please Please look into this. Knowledge is powerful. In the case of our coach we may have found out too late.
Jay Carley
Allison Series Director
Texoma Legacy Motorsports
++++++++++++++++++++
Todd Covini
++++++++++++++++++++
On Saturday night our motor coach was destroyed by fire in the hanger where we had it stored. The unit was plugged in to power the onboard battery charger, and the refrigerator was the only appliance that was operating.
This fire completely destroyed our coach, a neighbors coach, both of our Allison cars, two vintage truck and tons of shop equipment.
The point of this message is to notify everyone that has a motor coach or RV of any sort to check your refrigerator for recall. Both Dometic and Norcold have nation wide recalls for units going back to 1999. My coach had one of the model refrigerators that were listed as potential of fire. We were never notified of any recall, and thus had no idea of the potential of the risk. The potential of fire occurs during operation of the refrigerator while connected to shore power or on generator power. I have seen nothing that has indicated the risk while the units are running on gas.
Even if you are the original owner of your coach and RV, I know you would think that you will be notified of recalls. Not so in our case. We are the original owners and have not seen a recall notice from the coach manufacture or the refrigerator manufacture. We received one recall from Freightliner on the chassis the first year, but nothing since. Infact, there was a factory recall issued on our coach in September of 2005. Our coach was at the dealership for three weeks in December of 2005 and there was no mention of this recall.
My coach was a 2005 Winnebago Journey 36 foot diesel pusher. Since the fire, I have also found out that there was a recall by Winnebago for improper venting of the refrigerator that could cause a fire. The recall number for this particular recall is Campaign #05V407000.
I am truly thankful that I was not using the coach when the fire occurred. Please, please check your RVs for this life safety concern. Loosing our coach and race cars has been difficult. I cant imagine what this would be like if someone had been killed or seriously injured.
We have not been given an exact cause of this fire, but the insurance companies are looking at the refrigerator as a significant cause. Please do the research and verify that you and your family are not at risk. This could very easily have happened track side while we were asleep. There are nearly 4000 documented RV fire every year and many result in loose of life.
Please Please look into this. Knowledge is powerful. In the case of our coach we may have found out too late.
Jay Carley
Allison Series Director
Texoma Legacy Motorsports
++++++++++++++++++++
Todd Covini