Freeway Traffic Stopped Cold by Blazing RV

Five Oregon college students fled a motor home as it caught fire Monday on the Santa Ana Freeway, shutting down the northbound lanes at lunchtime and snarling traffic for miles.

No one was injured in the fire, which started as the carload of students was returning home from a vacation in Southern California, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The blaze destroyed the recreational vehicle and all of the students’ belongings inside, including food, clothes and electronic equipment.

“The guys bailed out but virtually everything of theirs was lost,” Orange Fire Capt. Larry Boyd said.

About 12:45 p.m., the students were traveling north on the Santa Ana Freeway when they noticed that the engine of their recreational vehicle was heating up, but they kept on driving, Boyd said.

A few miles later, near the Garden Grove Freeway intersection, the driver noticed smoke coming from underneath the hood of the 25- to 30-foot vehicle and pulled over to the side of the road, Boyd said. The students discovered a small flame and tried to put it out with a portable fire extinguisher.

“That didn’t work,” Boyd said, “because by the time we left the station, which was about a mile away, we saw billowing clouds of smoke.”

Because the fire was initially reported as being near Chapman Avenue, firefighters took the wrong exit in getting to the fire and had to circle back using a lane still under construction by Caltrans workers, Boyd said.

“We got Caltrans workers to stop traffic and we pulled the line across the freeway to do a quick knockdown of the fire,” he said. “Then we called for another engine while we got back on the other side.”

Firefighters extinguished the flames with the help of a new device called a Snozzle that can quickly pierce roofs or other barriers to spray water onto the flames.

“Without it, we would have to pull hoses inside and firefighters would have to knock down the panels to get to the fire,” Boyd said. “With this, we can set the unit up and puncture right through the roof and effectively knock the fire down. It’s something very new, and we’re still trying to learn about all of its capabilities.”

Firefighters said the fire apparently was sparked by an electrical malfunction and spread to the main portion of the vehicle “like a mobile home fire,” Boyd said.

He said the Snozzle device normally is tacked onto firefighting aircraft, and the Orange Fire Department might be the first in the state to install the device on a fire engine. The engine was purchased about two months ago and Monday’s fire was the first blaze in which the Snozzle was used, he said.

The accident prompted authorities to shut down the northbound Santa Ana Freeway for half an hour and to close the lane closest to the shoulder for another hour while eight firefighters dismantled the motor home, California Highway Patrol Officer Mike Lundquist said.