Firefighting on a ship requires going back to the basics, or what retired U.S. Navy firefighter Tom Jones simply calls “old school.”
This includes likely having to forgo things that firefighters take as a given these days — including radios with which to communicate with one another.
“Inside, turn it off, because it’s probably not going to work,” Jones said. “Old school.”
Jones is the lead instructor at Resolve Maritime Academy’s fire school in Fort Lauderdale. He and his colleagues trained a group of 11 firefighters this week from the Ocean Reef Club in North Key Largo and three from Monroe County Fire-Rescue on the unique tactics needed to effectively put out fires on ships and larger yachts — techniques aimed at saving lives and money and limiting the environmental damage a sinking vessel can cause.
Keys firefighters are used to combating structure fires and are certainly not novices at putting out boat fires. But boarding a big vessel and going to the source of a blaze inside it presents a special set of challenges and dangers.
On the top of the list are tight quarters allowing for only limited mobility. While entering a home engulfed in flames clearly can be deadly, firefighters have more room to move and more ways to escape than they would if they were to weave their way down the narrow corridors of a ship.
Firefighters training at Resolve are put through a course simulating real-life conditions aboard a mock-up ship located at Port Everglades. The crew training Wednesday made several passes through the vessel donning their full bunker gear and air tanks and carrying two fire hoses, entering above deck and wending their way down stairs to the ship’s engine room.
The fire they encountered there was real — albeit, controlled — creating temperatures below deck well in excess of 200 degrees. It’s taxing enough sporting the heavy bunker gear, complete with a face mask and hood, while roasting underneath the South Florida summer sun. But below deck, the heat becomes nightmarishly oppressive from the combination of the claustrophobia-inducing tight steel spaces and the roaring flames.
Little visibility
This causes firefighters to breathe heavier and risk running out of the air in their tanks before they can put out the fire and get out of harm’s way. Visibility extends only a few feet in the smoke, and the sound of creaking metal doors, the crackle of the fires and chirping alarms warning air tanks are almost empty can quickly cause disorientation.
Ocean Reef Battalion Chief Alex Del Rio has been a firefighter for 28 years and has experienced a myriad conditions both real life and in training.
“But nothing like this before. This was eye-opening,” Del Rio said.
His colleague, Ocean Reef firefighter and paramedic Barbara Fassett, agreed.
“We’ve fought little compartment fires, but nothing to the extent which we’re trying to master here,” Fassett, a 20-year veteran, said.
The firefighters went down in teams of seven to nine, which at times proved too many.
“Conditions are vastly different from what you’re going to find in a building fire,” Jones said. “Tactically, you have to be completely reevaluated. It’s manpower-intensive, but too much manpower also can be a bad thing.”
Specifically, the firefighters risk bunching up as they proceed single-file through the thin corridors. And if the firefighters on point feel the situation is too intense to continue on or they need to get out quickly, having too many people on a team behind them can be extremely dangerous, especially coupled with communication difficulties.
It’s also important to the men and woman battling the blaze to know the whereabouts of all of their colleagues. For instance, spraying water on the flames below deck can cause a plume of hot steam that could rise and kill or injure anyone on the surface of the ship.
‘Different animal’
“Shipboard firefighting is a completely different animal,” said Clifford Charlock, manager of Resolve’s fire school.
The school trains departments ranging from those in Florida and New York in the states, and first responders from countries like Colombia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia abroad, said Charlock, who is a retired Hialeah firefighter.
Monroe County Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Cab Bentley said he was grateful to be asked by Ocean Reef’s department to take part in the training with them because be it a structure, boat or brush fire, or a car accident or plane crash, interlocal cooperation is paramount to responding to emergencies in the Keys.
“Anytime we can get agencies within Monroe County to train together, it’s fantastic,” Bentley said. “We’re all stronger and better that way.”
The training at Resolve also focuses on battling vessel fires with a goal of limiting the damage to the boat and, in turn, the environment.
Carl Lessard, yacht-loss prevention specialist with AIG, who works with Resolve, said yacht fires in boat yards and marinas are usually put down by firefighters trained to dousing buildings, homes and cars. The lessons learned at Resolve will hopefully teach them ways to put out boat fires before the vessels sink and leak fuel and before the flames can spread to nearby boats.
“They learn the safest way to fight a fire and the safest way to get out,” Lessard said. “It’s a lot safer for them, and hopefully a lot safer and a lot less damage for the vessel.”
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Source: Florida Keys News
