Fire Danger From Plastic Water Bottles

[Kate Taylor]

On our pitch in Portugal I recently started putting 5lt water bottles on the mud walling on the awning and the utility tent doors to stop feral cats getting in.
I now find that the sun’s rays have burnt holes in the plastic mud walls. I have seen these plastic water containers used for this for many years, but beware there is a lot of heat built up under them.
This could be particularly dangerous if there was dry vegetation around.

 

[Clive-Cardiff]

Looks like a job for a moderator :-( I cant edit the rubbish out

 

[Gafferbill]

I have heard it is the convex lens effect of concentrating the Sun's rays onto a small spot .......as in the old schoolboy trick of burning the back of a victims hand with a lens...........How about this showing the power of the Sun

 

[Kate Taylor]

I've removed all that visible formatting code rubbish now. You're welcome Kate

 

[Surfer]

On our pitch in Portugal I recently started putting 5lt water bottles on the mud walling on the awning and the utility tent doors to stop feral cats getting in.
I now find that the sun’s rays have burnt holes in the plastic mud walls. I have seen these plastic water containers used for this for many years, but beware there is a lot of heat built up under them.
This could be particularly dangerous if there was dry vegetation around.

Another one around it is to push a stick into the ground and to place a 2 litre empty plastic bottle over the stick so that the neck is about a foot off the ground. It creates the same effect as in the wind, they move around, the wind can cause a noise from blowing over the neck of the bottle and the light reflecting off it distract the animal and makes them wary even at night. This is a very successful method and have never heard of dry vegetation catching fire.

 

[Clive-Cardiff]

[
[/quote]
Another one around it is to push a stick into the ground and to place a 2 litre empty plastic bottle over the stick so that the neck is about a foot off the ground. It creates the same effect as in the wind, they move around, the wind can cause a noise from blowing over the neck of the bottle and the light reflecting off it distract the animal and makes them wary even at night. This is a very successful method and have never heard of dry vegetation catching fire.[/quote]

The bottles were intended to weigh down the mud wall to stop the cats squeezing through. The problem is that many campers welcome the cats into their awnings. We personally don't like cats and hate the idea of them jumping up onto our dining table during the night.

 

[Surfer]

If you have a zoo near you and it has lions, approach the zoo keeper as ask for some lion droppings. Mix it in with what ever you use to weigh down the awning and guaranteed no cats will come within a mile of your awning. It may sound strange, but it does work. After all, if you were a little pussy would you want to be around if a very big pussy eating pussy is around? :lol:

 

[Clive-Cardiff]

I take a little pussy with me and I've not got her near a big pussy yet, but i can seen where your coming from

 

[spardoe]

Hi Clive,

Thanks for the warning, we're going to mention it to others in the next issue as well if you don't mind?

Best wishes, Stacie

 

[Clive-Cardiff]

We have used the bottles for this purpose for many years, but all our awnings have had inside mud wall. On our new Ventura awning the mud walls are on the outside.
After I had discovered the cause of the burns I experimented with an old piece of synthetic grass carpet. I laid a couple of the bottles on the carpet for a day in the sun and fond the same burn patterns on the carpet after just one day.