Almost Burned Up the Rig - Again

wdk450

Well-known member
Gang:
I am going to share this stupid mistake of mine, in the hopes that it saves somebody else's rig.

To begin with, I have to confess that I keep the storage space in the dining room table full of a mess of fixit items - Duct tape, small tools, RVers Goop, Super Glue, Rescue tape, some screws and small hardware. This afternoon I was "massaging" the contents of the space trying to find the tube of RVers Goop. I had some balls of steel wool in the drawer. I guess I rolled one of the steel wool balls, because suddenly it was on fire like an old time explosives fuse. I blew some of the fire out, but it was still fiercely burning on the back side. I quickly doused it in the sink to put the fire out. I discovered I had some uncapped 9 volt batteries in that table storage area, too. Straight out of Macguiver!!!
This highly flammable combination had been riding around together in that space for months, including my round trip to Goshen from California. Its a miracle my rig didn't catch fire. I duct taped the tops of the 9 volt batteries, and stored them elsewhere. I put the steel wool balls in a ziplok bag.
Somehow when thinking of highly flammable stuff I always seem to think of liquid hydrocarbons like gasoline, not thinking of how well steel wool burns.
 

Nabo

Southeast Region Director-Retired
WOW - scary and you were there. Thanks for reminding us that batteries and steel wool don't mix.
 

Invizatu

Senior Road Warriors
That's crazy!
I do keep steel wool in my survival go bag for just that purpose, great fire starter.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
A bit like putting a 9V battery in your pocket with a bunch of loose change. That's been known to provide a wake-up call.
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Steel wool has a light coating of oil. That's what makes it so flammable once the battery makes the wool red hot.
Your a lucky man.

Peace
Dave
 

Speedy

Well-known member
Bill,
I bet you were parked at a gas station with your propane tanks open and the frig running when this happened. ;) After reading this I'm sticking with 3M scrubbing pads.
 

Lynn1130

Well-known member
Yep, best fire starter you can find for the survival/hunting backpack. Not a good thing for anywhere else. Glad it did not cause a major issue for you.
 
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