Our motorhome had an engine fire while driving and it is a total loss.

Me and 3 of my boy's were heading to my dad's to drop it off. We had traveled 325 of our 330 mile trip when it happened.

The boys were sleeping (it was 3am CT) and the motorhome started to sputter and lose power. A few pops came from the engine area (not completely unusual for this RV) and I looked at my heat gauge and it was barely over the mid point but higher than it had been the whole trip. I put it in park and then saw what I thought was steam. So I figured I would get out and open the hood in preparation for adding radiator fluid.

When I opened it I saw some flames. I ran back to the driver door and yelled for my boy's to wake up and get out because the engine was on fire. I grabbed my cell phone to call 911 and grabbed my laptop bag which was right next to it. I ran around to the other side to help my boy's and grab the fire extinguisher (while talking to 911) but the fire extinguisher wouldn't work.

After I got off the phone with 911 I tried to call my wife, them my son at home, then a daughter at home, then my wife again. Finally I called my dad which is where I was heading.

Fire and police arrived about 60 seconds before my dad and had not started spraying the motorhome yet.

We are in the process of moving to my dad's house. My mom passed away last year and dad is getting old and is struggling taking care of his home and property. I was laid off and us moving in with him is a symbiotic effort to help each other out. The motorhome was packed with many household items and personal posessions. Most likely all lost although I am not sure if some in the very back towards the bottom of all our packed items survived or not. There was a lot of melted aluminum so the heat was pretty high. And then potential smoke and water damage even if something didn't burn or melt. I'll find out more in the next few days when I get to see what can be salvaged.

I'm pretty sure I only have liability insurance...and you can't really replace some personal posessions anyway. I'm not sure if our photo box or my box with my book of remembrance and school year books made it into this load or not. They could still be at the house.

All of us are safe. I am extremely grateful my boy's did not have their usual groggy and uncooperative wake ups...especially since the motorhome was packed so full they had to climb over a seat to get to the door.

Counting some serious blessings on the safety of each of us during a scary time with some serious property (financial) loss.