200318 Odd Little Fires

Odd Little Fires
Report No. 200318

Fires can start anywhere but some parts of the ship are far more likely than others. Having experienced a few odd little fires, some of them in quite unexpected places, I feel that perhaps some lessons gained from them can be passed on. One or two of them may even be interesting or different enough to be incorporated into future Emergency Drills. Apart from the first one, all these fires have happened to me. The conclusions I have drawn from some of them may seem inconsequential but may one day save a life.

FIRE ON MONKEY ISLAND

An LPG Carrier reported that the Standard Compass on Monkey Island had caught fire. Apparently the helmsman, carrying out his regular comparison of the Gyro and Standard Compasses, saw flames instead of the normal compass card. The Emergency Alarm was rung, the appropriate breaker pulled and the fire quickly put out. It was the electrical wiring at fault. If gas had been venting off at the time, it could have caused an explosion, given the right combination of wind direction, gas and air. The fire could also have gone unnoticed for quite a time due to its location.

FUNNEL FIRES

I have experienced this phenomenon twice, each time on a different motor ship. On both occasions, one of the generator uptakes inside the funnel caught fire. It was only noticeable when the heat generated from it caused the paint on the outside of the funnel to ignite. At first, we only fought the exterior fire but when the paint kept re-igniting, we realised that the primary fire was inside the funnel. To extinguish it, we had to go right inside with the hoses and other equipment.

Only the uptake was burning inside the funnel, probably because the inside bulkheads were too caked with carbon to burn. Surprisingly little structural damage occurred, maybe because the crew had just painted the funnel a few days before and the coating was thicker than normal. Incidentally, on the first occasion, the Chief Mate and myself (2nd Mate) were ashore at the time, talking to the boss stevedores and had difficulty getting back on board - due to 4 gangs of dockers abandoning ship down the only gangway.

Since I have been in Command, I have always made it a practice, at least once each voyage, to simulate a funnel fire. Hoses being played on the outside and members of the Emergency Party in fire suits going inside to extinguish the source of the fire at the generator uptake. Most people seem to enjoy this.

LIFEBOAT ON FIRE

A fire in dry-dock, with the ship connected to the shore water mains, can be a problem for fire fighting. I was Chief Mate on an old dry cargo ship in a British dry-dock when, during the lunch hour, a welder decided to work on the starboard lifeboat davit. He warned nobody of his intentions and climbed up into the lifeboat and started burning on the after davit. The lifeboat was made of wood and had a petrol engine, which had obviously been oozing out over the years onto the thwarts and bottom boards. A spark sent the whole thing up like a rocket and the welder only just managed to escape with his life.

There was no fire watch, either by the dockyard or the ship because nobody realised he was working through. We put the fire out before the Fire Brigade arrived, despite the lack of water pressure. By its very location, the fire in the boat was isolated from the rest of the ship so nothing else caught fire from it. The lifeboat itself was a write-off though.

2ND ENGINEER'S CHOICE

In this case, the 2nd Engineer was caught in a dilemma. He was the key man in both the Emergency Party for the fire and the Engine Control Room to get the ship back on line. With both alarms sounding simultaneously, he chose to go to his Emergency Station, which I consider was the correct thing to do. The Chief Engineer did not agree. Although it is rare that both alarms sound together, there should be a Company or at least a shipboard policy so that the 2nd Engineer does not have to agonise over a decision like this.

A VERY POLITE FIRE IN THE DUTY MESS

When a small fire is seen, some of the older Ratings and occasionally even Officers seem reluctant to sound the Emergency Alarm. They prefer to tell someone in authority personally. The most ridiculous case of this in my experience happened when we were discharging alongside at Karachi on a small 18,000 ton product tanker. I was Chief Mate, relaxing with some of the other officers in the smokeroom when a Donkeyman appeared at the door. 'Excuse me Mister Mate' he said politely 'would you mind stepping outside a minute please?' I did, thinking it was one of the perennial crew personnel problems. He then, still very politely, informed me that the toaster in the Engineers' Duty Mess was on fire. It literally took some seconds to sink in - what with his unaccustomed politeness contrasting with the gravity of the message.

The toaster was also a grill and was really ablaze. The duty mess opened out on to an outside alleyway close to the main tank deck and its door was wide open - against all our regulations and common sense. We extinguished that one by turning the current off at source and using Dry Powder. In fact I remember it being so hot that it took three goes of Dry Powder to properly extinguish the fire.

RELUCTANCE TO SOUND EMERGENCY ALARMS

I think this attitude still clings to many older Senior Officers today. They would rather handle things themselves than call out all hands for a minor fire. It is wrong, of course, we all know that, but I for one found it a difficult habit to break. Once on my ULCC, we were anchored doing a Ship to Ship Transfer of Crude Oil to a VLCC alongside, when the Duty Engineer reported by telephone a small fire in the Engine Room.

All the Senior Officers were together discussing the forthcoming dry-dock with a Superintendent and not one of us thought to ring the Emergency Alarm. Apart from that we did all the right things, stopped the cargo transfer, started to disconnect the pipeline with the crew on deck and extinguished the fire. It was only towards the end that I sounded the alarm, when everything was almost under control. By then, it was so late that everybody wondered why I had bothered.

COMMUNICATIONS BREAKDOWN

All these were minor fires which we dealt with as efficiently as we knew how. Some of them occurred before the present Emergency Party system became general. We still had weekly drills every Friday, usually referred to as the Board of Trade Sports. However, I have found that in every major Emergency I have been involved with, communications are the first thing to break down.

The Walkie Talkies are excellent at drills, but they seem to be of little use when the real thing happens. The Emergencies I am referring to consisted of two rescues by lifeboat from the sea, one of them in SW Monsoon conditions and a major fire. On every occasion, we had to resort to other methods of communication. At least one Emergency Drill should be held each voyage assuming normal communications are cut. It is surprising how enterprising the Emergency Party can be at finding various telephone points they hardly knew existed before.

I am not belittling these Walkie Talkies, they are normally very useful and in any case the fault is usually ours. In the heat of the moment, the radio gets put down somewhere and forgotten. Or else the battery has not been recharged. In the case of the lifeboat rescue, the boat crew could not hear the radio due to the loud diesel Engine noise and the monsoon wind.

On these occasions I was extremely glad that the Radio Officer was there. I would not have liked to have been on the GMDSS system and have had to take an officer away from the fire fighting party to handle the radio, or to man the radio myself come to that, even though I have taken the course.