It's not something that most of us think about when we're one with nature during the summer months, but it's a problem that we need to be aware of all year long.

Carbon monoxide poisoning is usually talked about the most during the winter, when we're all turning on furnaces on for the first time in six months. In case you've been living under a rock, carbon monoxide is colorless, odorless and can be emitted when gas or propane is burned. That's why it's so important to actually have a CO detector in your home...and your camper.

We've heard a lot of tragic stories about carbon monoxide poisoning right here in Michigan, but it can happen anywhere, at any time of the year.

Most of us would think that we're safe if we're outdoors, camping. Sadly, that's not the case.

On Sunday night, Pat and I were at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester Tennessee. We were getting settled in for the night when we saw a fire truck pull into our campground. It was there for over an hour, so we wandered over to see what was happening. Turns out that quite a few carbon monoxide detectors in RVs and campers were going off.

Earlier that day, I had made my way to our tiny teardrop camper to lay down for a few minutes...and the CO detector went off. I thought that the battery was dying and totally ignored it because we weren't running a generator...but everybody else was running THERE generators, and therein lies the problem.

Nobody was hurt, thank goodness, but it's happened in years past at this festival and it can happen at ANY campground.

For important safety tips about camping and carbon monoxide poisoning, click HERE.

 

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