Propane Safety in Camp - Propane stove

There is a lot of pleasure derived in visiting Green Lake. There is significant danger as well.

The executive/admin/board of directors does it's best to ensure that the club functions safely for all members. Over the last few years your club has been replacing and updating both appliances and energy sources including propane, solar and wood.

While many sections of propane lines have been replaced, the appliances may not be all similar or familiar from season to season and year to year. We all end up in a different cabin at one time or the other, and although a fridge is a fridge and the stove a stove, it may not be the same one you turned on last year.

Fridges, cook stoves, lights (with the exception of the new cabin 3), and the heater in no 4 (small cabin) are fuelled by propane. We are slowly moving towards solar, but for the immediate future will not be replacing wood or propane for heating and cooking.

Propane tanks and the appliances they serve are both a luxury and potential danger.  Carbon monoxide poisoning or fire is the immediate and constant threat.

If you turn the gas on in the camp and smell propane, what is the reason? Don't just go about your business, check it out. It could save your life.

1 - make certain you have no unconnected devices. Stoves, fridges, or lights that are open but not lit.

2 - If you do have propane lights hissing without being lit,  shut the lights, shut the main tank, and depending on how long you have had the tank open, let the cabin air out 10 -15 minutes before attempting to light any appliance.

3 - If the smell of propane is very very strong, turn off the main tank and do not even go into the house without letting it air a good long time.

https://youtu.be/HQljsiTU4r8

4 -  Every cook stove in camp has four cooker burners and an oven. Each needs the pilot lights lit. Ask if you don't know how.

Propane is heavier than air.  It can ignite with a small static spark from your jacket. If your cabin does not have a carbon monoxide detector installed (not a smoke detector), please advise a director  immediately.

Here is a link to the above youtube video. Note, this is not an exact replicate of the stove in your cabin, but the principle is similar.

https://youtu.be/HQljsiTU4r8

Next posting : The propane fridge operation.