Holy fuck. Excuse my French, but my heart is racing a million miles a minute.
I started a fire and nearly put the van on fire.
I was a bit cold, so I watched a YouTube video on how to make a fired heater using alcohol, toilet paper and a tin can.
I thought I have alcohol and toilet paper. I don't have a tin can, but I do have a Trangia. I'll use that! Simple!
I layered the toilet paper and soaked it in alcohol in the bottom of the pan. Put the Trangia base and a pot over the top.
As soon as I lit it, I regretted it. Flames started curling from around the base and I started to freak.
Yes, it was warm, but the flames started getting bigger, and I wanted to bail, quickly.
I quickly read google on how to put out an alcohol fire quickly. I knew the answer already because I use the Trangia as my stove, however, at that moment, I trusted Google! Apparently, I needed to smother it to deprive the oxygen or add water.
Ok, I could do this. I grabbed the big 5L pot and put it over the top to smother it, but it didn't cover the whole Trangia, the DIY Alcohol Heater now included the 5L pot and the pot was started to turn red with the heat.
Water was my next bet! Except that only made the flames bigger.
I started thinking about calling the Fire Brigade and then realised I had a sink full of water from the dinner dishes, and a microfibre towel within reach, which I found out afterwards, microfibre is apparently fire resistant.
I soaked the towel in the dirty dishes water and smothered the fire, thank fuck, it stopped the fire, and now I'm back to being cold, but I'm ok with that!!!!!!!!
I get to live another day!
To anyone thinking of converting a van into a camper, don't ever try this, and always have a sink full of water and a microfibre towel handy in case you have to suddenly put out a fire!!!
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