ANOTHER CO death reported. please be careful/sensible!

[SeaShellsInTheMoonlight]

just highlighting this again as I think it's the third ive seen in the press this year. BBC are reporting a woman died in north Wales. Her husband and children are recovering according to reports.

I'll try and link to the article.

Im glad you said that, I thought I was the biggest wally thinking someone would come and steal the girls away by slicing the tent. They would have to get though 2 layers and a dog first though

Radio 5 spoke to a lady this evening about this latest incident. Her dh died on a camping trip four years ago from carbon monoxide poisioning caused by a Coleman's lamp. It was a new lamp and apparently her dh hadn't put it together properly so it leaked. He was found dead the next morning by their 16 yr old dd (the lady was at home looking after a younger child). Very sad but makes me realise that I will never go camping now without taking a carbon monoxide monitor with me.

Good article about gas heaters inside tents here. I have read other articles stating you need to provide 6 square inches of ventilation when using gas heaters. There was a chap on local news last night from the Camping & Caravanning Club & they are trying to put together some safety information.

That's good the CCC are trying to provide information, there needs to be clear information available.

There are so many people camping, and so many that are new to camping it needs to be highlighted.

thanks for highlighting this, I am going camping for the first time ever this weekend and wasn't too sure what the protocol was for stoves. I will ensure I cook outside because it's just too much of a risk.

I must admit I do cook in the tent - well, I do now, having now got a tent big enough to cook inside I'm reluctant to go stand out in the rain again. One ring burner, well away from the walls, on a stable surface (would have been on a proper field kitchen, had DH not forgotten to pack it). I wouldn't let DD zip herself up in the bedroom while I was doing this, although I have realised I ought to forego my morning cuppa if she's not up and about ... I've also just ordered a carbon monoxide monitor (flashy light screechy one, not a colour changing thing).

The stove is the only gas or naked-flame item that comes in the tent - a gas heater would make me very nervous indeed, however responsibly used, and the hurricane lantern stays outdoors.

We have a gas camping heater, but only use it for the one festival we go to in the spring before the weather warms up, the dcs don't go with us to that one and we don't sleep in the awning. We always take a carbon monoxide detector which we mount in the top/middle of the awning as well. Its battery powered and gives a warning alarm even at low levels. We've now used the heater four times and never had the alarm detect even low levels of CO.

Despite this, I won't even consider taking it when the dcs are going with us.

Our cooker is in the vw, but we only ever cook on it with one of our two/twin sliding doors open and again there is a CO monitor in there.

Such a sad story.

Sadly, there seems to be more cases of this happening since our so-called Summers have become colder and wetter. I think a big tv awareness campaign is needed so that everyone knows the facts about the dangers of CO, not just in terms of faulty boilers and gas fires in the home, but also when camping.

I've always been happy using the gas fridge and gas cooker in my camper van. The way i see it is that they're designed for this purpose and are properly vented. I do know people who turn their fridges off overnight but then you have warm milk in the morning! I do take a co alarm with me.

Everyone seems to be focusing on heaters when it seems it could be any gas appliance, as in my post it was a lamp not a heater.

The couple that died in Hampshire died from carbon monoxide fumes from an ordinary charcoal bbq.

Crikey. How tragic. I have cooked inside a tent lots of times. In fact, I got into the habit after staying in a Eurocamp tent which has a gas stove inside.

I saw this and actually went as far as emailing the department of health to suggest a campaign which is not the sort of thing I normally do.

I suggested posters on the back of campsite toilet doors or something. I'm sure loads of people don't know about the dangers, and it is so sad to think of someone dying on holiday.

Oh and with our new camper the fridge is vented to the outside so we leave it on overnight. But in the old camper the vent was to inside the van so we used to turn it off overnight.

Downy - do you get your fridge serviced ever? Just wondering if I ought to with mine.

The lady whose dh died because of the lamp has been trying to raise awareness and get campsites to post warnings but to no avail. Info here

Sorry to ask this again but still looking for advice, does anyone know whether it is safe to use a hurricane lamp in a bell tent, it burns paraffin.

Sorry Viva went to bed. Haven't yet. New camper had a full check on things like that before we bought it, but yes, probably should occasionally shouldn't you?

We do have a CO monitor as well, but thinking about it we should keep it lower down than we do - because CO sinks doesn't it? that's why people are killed while they are asleep - oh its sad.

Thanks for the link Mollie.

Ooooh, I didn't know about co sinking and I put the monitor on the top bed but we sleep on the bottom. Soave learnt something good. Should iput the monitor on the floor at night?

Info about CO detector placement.

victoria I've done some poking about, and it's all a bit inconclusive - plenty of glamping locations promising paraffin lamps inside bell tents, so I guess it's not a complete no-no. I would hazard a guess that in a big tent burning a paraffin lamp for an hour or two would be okay, but in a small tent overnight you might not wake up in the morning (that's provided the tent didn't burn down in the meantime).

In the course of my researches I HAVE found out that citronella oil isn't intended for indoor use - I have only citronella oil for my hurricane lantern. I wasn't planning on using it inside anyway, as it's really smoky.

Does anyone know exactly how this poor lady died? Was it a cooker?

I wouldn't risk it personally (paraffin lamp in tent), you can get battery powered camping lanterns and we've usually managed OK with just a torch. Head torches are very useful.

You could use it but have a CO alarm in the tent for peace of mind?

It was a bbq left in the porch/doorway.

I read somewhere that we are at greater risk these days because tents are more airtight and the material they are made from isn't as permeable as canvas.

Don'tCallMeBaby thankyou for your advice, I to have been hunting around on the internet and like you haven't managed to find anything conclusive, I am really surprised that there aren't better warnings on these sorts of equipment considering how potentially life threatening they can be. I thought that was odd about the glamping sites having lanterns inside as well. Don't think we'll risk it, maybe use them outside but i am definitely taking a CO detector with us, we have one in the spare room with the boiler so will just take that i think.

Those of you planning to take their household CO detectors camping should think again. What happens if there has been a build up of CO whilst you are away? Wouldn't it be foolish to take your detector camping and then expire when you got home because of unmonitored CO at home? I think it is better to have a separate alarm that you use for camping.

I think as long as you take your alarm back in the house as soon as you go in you'll be fine. Co death isn't instant. You won't walk through the door and drop dead. And the alarm will work instantly if it picks up co.