Electrical Fire at the Water Heater

This customer had a mouse cause some damage to his 110v wiring to the water heater while his RV was in storage. About 5 days into using the RV, one afternoon, his wife heard popping coming from the water heater while inside. Her husband went outside to check it out to find the water heater smoking. He ran inside, grabbed the fire extinguisher, and doused the water heater on the outside, then opened up the paneling in the storage to find a small fire, which he doused as well.

He shut off power, and closed the propane bottles to make sure nothing else could ignite or cause more damage. In the photo above, you can see his propane hose melted. His quick thinking prevented this from becoming a much bigger problem. When I arrived to replace the water heater, removing all of the compromised wiring and the propane hose was the first priority.

This is to show some of the damage the fire caused to his floor. If it had been left to burn for very much longer, the propane line would have ignited, and the wood around the area would have fully caught fire as well. I removed this burned electrical plug before continuing.

The styrofoam was acting as fuel for the fire. The metal tank and outer framing was already warping and melting from the heat.

After cleaning up the area as best as we could, we replaced the propane line with new, installed the new water heater with all new brass fittings and bypass valves, filled it with water, and fired it up. No leaks, solid connections, and now some hot water!