In a cautionary tale for all Australian grey nomads, a travelling couple are still reeling at the speed with which their converted campervan went up in flames at a New Zealand campsite.
The pair, who are originally from the United Kingdom, say they ‘lost everything’ after the vehicle they were living in caught fire at a Marlborough camping site on the South Island.
The travellers, who want to remain anonymous, told the New Zealand media they were metres away eating dinner with other campers when they noticed smoke coming from their vehicle.
“We ran over, but within 30 seconds it was on fire,” the man told stuff.co.nz.
The vehicle was fully ablaze in less than 30 seconds, witnesses say. PIC: stuff.co.nz
People at the campsite collected water from the Wairau River to try to control the fire, but the vehicle went up very quickly. Others threw water on nearby grassland to stop the fire spreading.
Campers Michel Nebel and Rahel Haener said they didn’t know about the fire until they heard a loud explosion.
“We popped our head over to see what had happened and saw the van was engulfed in flames,” said Michael. “It didn’t burn very long. It was over in about five or 10 minutes, tops … it was scary!”
The British couple have been living in New Zealand since February last year, but moved into the self-contained minibus about five months ago. They converted the vehicle themselves.
A Marlborough District Council spokeswoman told stuff.co.nz that the council believed a camping gas canister had exploded.
“The council will work with the individuals involved and insurers to undertake [the] removal of the van,” she said.
Forgive my ignorance but is “a camping gas canister” referring to those disposable butane canisters ?
I’d say that’s a fair assessment, and I suspect because they converted the mini bus themselves they probably opted for the cheap easy option of using a portable camping stove rather than a fixed expensive unit that would have required a safety certificate.
There was a recall of a butane powered camping stove some time ago because they were overheating and causing some plastic fitting to melt which resulted in some fires.
Thanks for the reply, I too when I read “They converted the vehicle themselves.” thought it was probably a contributing factor.
Nothing wrong with the portable camp stove. Use it all the time for many years. Wouldnt recommend using them inside or restricted spaces.
The problem few years ago was people crowding or restricting the air vent flow and they became too hot. The newer ones have better vents.
Not sure what happened here. Dont know enough to comment…!