Fire Hands on Deck
FEATUREAS
FIRE PROTECTION
(Photos by David A. Norris)
An entire region works together to keep shipboard fires from snagging its economic lifeline.
Most firefighters have little experience with shipboard fires and limited training at best. This becomes troublesome when such a blaze does occur—as the Kalama (Wash.) Fire Department learned on Valentine’s Day, 1982.
The Cypriot bulk carrier Protector Alpha was moored to the dock at the North Pacific Grain Growers Association grain elevator along the Columbia River, 77 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The ship was refueling just before 8 p.m. when a fire developed in one of the propulsion engines. The engine room filled rapidly with smoke, causing one of the crewmen to become disoriented and trapped.
The Kalama firefighters, with the aid of another Protector Alpha crewman, went into the engine room and rescued the trapped seaman. Then they began to attack the fire.
They learned that things are quite different aboard ship. Walls, floors, and ceilings are solid steel. Doors become watertight, and opening the wrong one in this steel-lined floating chimney could prove fatal. Windows, normally a salvation in structural firefighting, are limited to small portholes, if that. The only certain path to fresh air is to follow the hose line back topside.
In the midst of all that, the Kalama firefighters faced one other obstacle—a grain dock employee cast the flaming ship adrift while they battled the blaze.
The result was tragic. One U.S. Coast Guardsman was killed. Three crewmen, a firefighter, and a second Coast Guardsman were injured. Damage to the ship was estimated at $15 million.
It could have been worse for the thousands of people whose livelihoods depend on the Columbia River. The ship could have sunk and blocked the channel, impeding shipping along this economic lifeline of the Northwest. River traffic amounted to 2,015 ships in 1985, not counting military vessels or the supertankers that call on the Swan Island repair yard.
The obvious
Obviously, the shipping industry believed something had to be done. The problem was one of coordination—along the 110 miles of river from Astoria, Ore., to the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area are 2 states, 7 counties, 14 cities, 7 port districts, and more than 20 fire departments.
The Coast Guard, which responds to ship fires in a support role and provides technical expertise, formed an ad hoc committee. That committee discovered poor training, equipment shortages, and deficiencies such as language barriers among sailors from diverse countries. All the various jurisdictions were consulted, and shipboard fire response plans from around the country were reviewed.
The result was the formation of the Maritime Fire and Safety Association in 1984. It consists of 27 member shipping corporations and 9 fire departments.
The association received a U.S. Department of Transportation start-up grant of $612,000. Additional revenues are raised through a $50 harbor fee collected from cargo ships that cross the Columbia River Bar, a submerged delta at the mouth of the river. (Because it’s treacherous to cross, ships hire members of the Columbia River Pilots Association who are familiar with the area to guide them past the bar.)
The association began operation in 1985. In just two years, it has greatly improved the shipboard firefighting capability in the area.
Some 652 firefighters received some sort of shipboard training in 1985 and 1986. Most of them (523) took a basic marine firefighting course. One hundred nineteen officers took advanced training as waterfront fire specialists. And 10 battalion chiefs have been trained as command-level shipboard fire experts.
Nearly $262,000 has been spent specifically for shipboard firefighting gear. The equipment includes 44 one-hour self-contained breathing apparatus units, two air compressor and cascade air-charging systems, 5,600 feet of hose, 1,250 gallons of foam concentrate, 10 portable generators, and 25 portable radios.
Also established was an advisory committee composed of officers from the member fire departments. The panel helped devise the training program, standardize equipment, and develop a standard response procedure. Committees draw up recommendations for the approval of a board that consists of executives from companies that are association members.
Furthermore, four fire suppression berths were established along the river—at Astoria, Ore.; Longview, Wash.; Vancouver, Wash.; and Portland, Ore. When a ship catches fire, the USCG captain of the Portland port (who has command of the entire area’s Coast Guard installations), the local fire chief, the ship’s captain, and the ship’s booking agent will decide to which fire suppression berth the burning vessel should be taken.
All this effort resulted in the first Maritime Fire and Safety Association training exercise on October 25 of last year. The Portland Bureau of Fire hosted the exercise, which was attended by all nine member departments. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers allowed the association to use the corps’s dock and to simulate a fire on the 350-foot dredge Essayons. Use of the association’s smoke generator on a lower deck, below the pier deck, added realism.
The objectives of the exercise were:
- To test the alert and notification system for the member fire departments, the Coast Guard, and other concerned public and private agencies;
- To exercise the Coast Guard’s and fire chiefs’ decision-making process to determine a course of action for fire suppression aboard a ship under way;
- To muster special equipment and personnel for an effective response to a shipboard fire; and
- To test a multijurisdictional incident command system.
The unexpected
The exercise met all the objectives, plus a new and unexpected result surfaced. Because of the joint training courses and the multifaceted advisory committee projects, the various chief officers were well acquainted with each other. They displayed the camaraderie normally found in departments that have daily mutual response rather than departments located 50 to 110 miles apart and in different states.
The association is still young, but it has already accomplished a great deal and is filling a need for all concerned. The future holds more training for people at all levels, including dock workers. In the works are advanced ship firefighting courses for the ship fire experts and full-scale regional response exercises.
Regional fire protection is becoming increasingly important, especially in dealing with unique problems such as shipboard firefighting. As a result, the Maritime Fire and Safety Association can be expected to grow and prosper.
