Fit a recessed fire blanket in your caravan

Keep your blanket close to hand with this simple project, says Tony Brown

I asked my local fire brigade for some advice before fitting fire equipment in my caravan, and they said, “Don’t fight the fire, just get everyone out.”

No-one would disagree with this, but I think most cooks would be prepared to throw a fire blanket over a flaming pan once everyone else had left.

After that, most people would also be prepared to operate an accessible fire extinguisher from outside the van, in the hope of limiting the flames until help arrived. While such an action must be without risk to life and limb, anything that improves the chances of turning off and removing the gas bottles helps to reduce the likelihood of quite a serious explosion.

The Caravan and Motorhome Club recommends a fire blanket to BS EN 1869; clearly, it must be within easy reach of the cook and if possible, between the cooker and the exit door.

So I value my fire blanket, but I don’t want to have to look at it all the time. My way of keeping it out of sight, yet accessible, was to find a small, convenient space for it to be recessed.

First, I took the blanket out of its bag, rolled it and pushed it into a plastic tube. The size of the tube will depend on your blanket, but mine went inside a 540mm length of 50mm white plastic wastepipe, with a plug at the inside end.

After checking behind the panel, I used a 50mm holesaw to cut a hole in a wooden partition, to hide the tube in a cupboard with just the end exposed, next to the kitchen.

The off-cut of black Perspex neatly labelled ‘Fire Blanket’ was the finishing touch.

1 The fire blanket is supplied in a red bag, but was rolled up and fitted into a piece of white plastic wastepipe 2 A 50mm holesaw was used to make a suitable hole to accommodate the plastic pipe 3 Now the fire blanket is easily inserted into, and removed from, its neat new home 4 The finishing touch was to glue a black Perspex trim onto the front