By Corey Wilson
Photos by Dennis Weis
The fireground presents even the most seasoned firefighter with a set of challenges that are unique to the structure or property involved. A building’s construction, firefighter knowledge of the structure, communications plan, and use of the Incident Command System (ICS) are only a few of the factors that can make a fire incident successful or unsuccessful—and that’s before we introduce the report of victims or a change in fire conditions.
Many fire departments across the country have taken steps to potentially sway the incident to a successful outcome before the incident occurs. These steps include improving their building preplanning procedures for large commercial buildings they are unfamiliar with in their jurisdiction. Information such as responsible party contact information, building layout, hydrant locations, and available fire suppression systems are captured in internal documents for their firefighters’ awareness with the intention of improving fireground efficiencies and firefighter safety should they respond to a fire at that location.
Unfortunately, this strategic plan for operational success is routinely limited to our most common fires, which are in residential and commercial structures. Departments that are also tasked with fires in large vessels at their respective ports seemingly ignore the implications and necessary preplanning for a ship fire. The idea of initiating fire attack for a fire aboard a vessel, let alone setting up an ICS for the fire, may seem daunting and overwhelming. The tragic 2023 shipboard fire in Newark, New Jersey, that killed two veteran firefighters highlights the extreme challenges and risks posed to fire departments that may respond to ship fires in their ports. It also shines a light on the importance of preplanning and training on these rare incidents before they occur.
The good news is that NFPA 1405, Guide for Land-Based Fire Departments That Respond to Marine Vessel Fires, exists to assist your department with developing a comprehensive response to this low-frequency/high-risk incident.
In many ways, the tactics and strategies used to attack a fire aboard a vessel are like those used routinely in structural firefighting. However, given the unique environment encountered aboard a vessel, there are many aspects of marine firefighting that warrant special attention. Many have compared ships to high-rise buildings, which is appropriate and demonstrates the complexity of these incidents, yet there are still some major differences between how you attack a fire and effectively ventilate each. It may take an entire first-alarm assignment to recon the incident, establish a water supply, and get one hoseline in place and staffed. Do you know what shipboard firefighting will take for your department?
NFPA 1405 identifies the elements of a comprehensive marine firefighting response program, including, but not limited to, vessel familiarization, training considerations, communications procedures, prefire planning, and special. Fires on board vessels are infrequent events, so it would be wise to focus on the following aspects of NFPA 1405. To have any measure of success and enhance the safety of your personnel, you must preplan today how you will respond to a fire aboard a ship.
- SHIPBOARD FIREFIGHTING: THE BASICS
- Shipboard Solutions for the Land-Based Firefighter
- POLITICS OF A SHIPBOARD INCIDENT
- FIRE IN THE HOLD SHIPBOARD DRILL
VESSEL FAMILIARIZATION
Ship Construction
Although ships may be framed similarly to buildings, the materials they are constructed of are not. Modern ships are constructed mainly of steel plates that are welded together. Aluminums and other alloys sometimes are used in noncritical areas. It is critical that firefighters understand the differences in fire and smoke ratings, and how they will be affected by the heat from fire in these structures.
Fire personnel who may respond to a shipboard fire must familiarize themselves with terminology used in the marine environment, ship construction, and ship layout. Learning terms such as bow for front and stern for the back of a vessel, and port and starboard for left and right, respectively, will allow responding personnel to work more effectively with ship personnel.
Unlike residential or commercial structures, where the different floors are numbered, decks on military and merchant ships can vary. For example, military ships are numbered as “01,” “02,” and “03” above the main deck and “1st deck,” “2nd deck,” and “3rd deck” below the main deck. Decks on merchant vessels are named or numbered. For firefighters, it’s crucial to be able to accurately tell the incident commander (IC) their location on the ship or the location of the fire. Additionally, ICs must understand the information that is being shared with them from their personnel so that proper accountability can occur. The ship’s personnel may have an expectation that responding personnel will be familiar with their ship’s deck numbering system, so they will communicate accordingly. The more your firefighters learn about the nuances of ship terminology and characteristics, the less chaotic the fireground will be. This demonstrates the importance of developing relationships with ship personnel long before the incidents occur.
Interior Arrangements
Unlike residential or commercial structures, the sizes of a ship’s interior spaces are much smaller. In most passageways, it is difficult for two people to walk side by side. Stairs, or “ladders,” are often steep and narrow. Much of the decking in the machinery spaces is open-webbed grating to reduce the chance of slipping. If the fire is underneath, the flames and heat can pass through the decking and can cause injury and early structural failure. These characteristics can also hamper and tax companies searching for the source of the fire and potential victims. Scheduling ship tours when the ships are in port should be considered necessary for firefighters who may respond to a ship fire so that they can begin familiarizing themselves with a ship’s interior arrangements. The first time your firefighters step foot on a ship shouldn’t be when it’s on fire.
Types of Ships
NFPA 1405 identifies 10 major ship types. Each type comes with a different set of unique characteristics and challenges for firefighters to consider. Some ships carry goods such as grain, coal, and scrap steel in large cargo holds. Others carry automobiles and other vehicles, very much like a multi-level parking garage on the water. Lastly, and most familiar, are passenger ships such as cruise ships, which can carry thousands of people and have the equivalent of multiple commercial and residential occupancies on board. It is your department’s responsibility to be familiar with the types of ships that make stops at your ports, and the challenges that each present should they catch fire. Whether it’s confined space incidents or the most mundane medical response, all incidents on ships can hamper operations for an uneducated department.
Ship Personnel
When developing a plan to respond to a marine incident, it’s important for an IC to recognize that the ship will most likely have personnel on board who can assist in a variety of ways. Removing them from danger may be necessary, but consider keeping them on the vessel to assist with ship familiarity as long as it’s safe to do so.
It is commonly unknown in the fire service that once you cross the gangway and board a vessel, you are no longer considered to be in the United States. A vessel is considered the sovereign territory of the country in which it is registered. To board and engage in firefighting, the representative of the vessel owner at the time of the first response, most likely the captain or master, must invite you on board. This interaction usually happens at the gangway. Once on board, the ship’s crew will be the best resource your company officers and firefighters have in reconning the incident and communicating the scope of the problem to the IC. They can also assist with translating the ship’s plans. This is no different than responding to high-rise fires and capitalizing on the building knowledge of the chief engineer or manager. Simply because there is an emergency on the ship, we should never dismiss these valuable resources that are at our disposal.
PLANNING
Fire Control Plan
When a ship is on fire, the fire control plan is one of the most valuable assets for land-based firefighters. It can be found at the gangway. Most of the information that the IC needs to coordinate a firefight on a ship, such as general layout and firefighting systems, are included in the fire control plan. They can, however, be difficult for firefighters and ICs to translate if they have never looked at a set of plans before. A representative from the ship can be invaluable in the command post to assist with reading the fire control plan.
Prefire Planning
Shipboard fires are considered to be among the most difficult types of fires to extinguish. A confirmed fire may require the response of more resources, potentially regionally. Although ship familiarization tours are infrequent, a prefire plan can assist responders with maintaining familiarity with a ship’s system, layout, and hazards. Without preplanning and hands-on drills, a fire aboard a ship will quickly become chaotic for the IC and responders. Upon confirmation of a reported working fire in a vessel of this size, the IC should automatically upgrade the incident to a second alarm.
TRAINING
Hands-On Drills
While tabletop exercises are valuable, fire departments that may respond to a ship fire must organize hands-on drills, when possible, so that members can experience just how labor intensive it will be to initiate a fire attack on board a ship. To minimize any interference with port or terminal operations, vessel tours and drills should be scheduled through the appropriate authorities. Due to any potential work being done on the vessel as well as the small size of the spaces in it, it may be difficult to facilitate large groups of personnel at a time.
Fire departments should break down the many aspects that go into fighting a ship fire into smaller drills, when necessary. The following are drills that your department can conduct when a full-scale ship fire exercise is not possible.
Communications
What will your comms plan be? A drill testing the limitations of your radio communications is the first place you should start. If the IC cannot communicate to the crews on the ship due to a loss of radio signal, ask yourself: “Should they be on the ship?” Start by having a team communicate out on an assigned channel before entering. Then have the team enter the ship and continue to radio out every 20-30 feet, as well as while changing decks. Take note of the limitations you find with your department’s radios. Determine if the ship may have any internal means of communication that may assist you, or if your department can support additional communications equipment such as a mobile repeater or bidirectional amplifier (BDA) at the command post.
Water Supply
One of the most basic but sometimes most challenging aspects of every fire is water supply. As a department that responds to potential ship fires, you should be able to answer these questions BEFORE the fire:
- Do you know the water supply system at your ports?
- How many hydrants are available?
- Do you know what their maximum flow is for each hydrant?
- How far away are they from the ships?
Conducting a hydrant survey of the ports in your area is a must for the IC and first-arriving companies to begin planning their water supply operation.
Apparatus Placement
Based on where the ships are located in your ports, develop a plan for apparatus placement should you need to fight a fire on a given ship. A good idea is to place an aerial ladder at the forward and aft ends of the ship; one for potential water supply from the tip of the aerial and one for firefighter access/egress. Is that a realistic plan for the size of your department or the layout of your ports? Conducting drills that place an aerial to the main deck is not only a great drill for your truck crew, but also an eye-opening drill to see just how long it will take to get one piece of apparatus in place next to a large vessel.
Hose Stretch
While most of the time it will not be possible for you to stretch charged hoselines into a working vessel, it may be possible to get permission to stretch hose up the gangway and to your entry point. This drill by itself will demonstrate the amount of personnel and energy it is going to take to get just one hoseline in place at the entry point. Consider the amount of work and reflex time that will be necessary to stretch the hose into the ship.
If you have not done so yet, take the time to visit the ports or shipyards in your jurisdiction and begin to form relationships with the port personnel and/or shipyard staff. If possible, dedicate at least one station in your department, most likely the one that will be first to arrive, to be your subject matter experts in land-based shipboard firefighting so they can “set the table” for your responders should there ever be a ship fire in your jurisdiction. It is important to note that you should never put all your eggs in one basket. Ensure your personnel get a basic “awareness” level of knowledge and training on these vessels. It is not uncommon for that “one” company you have dedicated to being your experts to be on another incident when the ship fire comes in. Additionally, given the complexity of the incident, much like a high-rise, many of the later-arriving companies will be deeply engaged in the fire fight.
This low-frequency/high-risk event will test your department like never before. Know your department’s limitations, don’t over-commit your personnel, and develop a comprehensive plan for the additional resources you will need. NFPA 1405 is your best resource to begin gaining the knowledge your department will need to understand the unique challenges that a fire aboard a ship will bring.
Corey Wilson is the deputy chief of emergency operations for Portland (OR) Fire & Rescue. He has been with Portland Fire for more than 22 years and oversees the daily operations of Portland Fire’s 31 stations on A Shift, including the administration of the marine program (both land- and water-based). He was station captain at the department’s land-based marine station, and served as battalion chief with the department’s three water-based marine stations as well as the land-based marine station.
Dennis Weis is the photographer for Portland (OR) Fire & Rescue.
