Fire! Fire! Fire Down Below.

Bright Spark unconcerned by fire (though he has been on many ships) leaves alight the deep fat fried, he has more than had his chips!

strange i seem to always come upon a subject way to late but here goes - i was doing research on that great ship queen elizabeth - later seawise university - and specifically the fire in hong kong in 1972- its devastating how much damage a fire can do to a ship - if you look at the videos - the amount of water pumped on board was huge - the achille lauro also comes to mind - then one that caught my attention was the prinsendam - the morro castle - angelina lauro - and then the normandie and the list goes on and on and on - my focus has always been on passenger ships but cargo and especially oil tankers makes one think ! fire is not a sailors friend - its a fascinating subject ! there was a movie once made - called exactly that fire at sea - i have not seen the movie myself !

this topic has led me to draw up a list of passenger ships that burnt out - a list i thought would be conclusive but no its not

so i will plough along and come back to this subject with hopefully a complete list with corresponding images !
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Was it in the walport movie box a short safety film "fire down below", which showed various scenarios about how a fire onboard could start, such as a rag draped over a cabin light to make it less bright, oily cotton waste, smoking inn your bunk and falling asleep with a lighted cigarette, plus other scenarios.
On my first trip to sea we had a galley fire where the evening meal went up in flames, the cook activated the fire alarm and the fire was quickly controlled and extinguished. The captain told me to go to the bridge and get the duty mate to switch off the fire alarms. On arriving there he was wandering about very unworried and had not bothered to shut off the accommodation and galley exhaust fans, despite there being a notice stating that the fans should be shut off in the event of a fir alarm.
He was totally unbothered about there having been a fire onboard until I told him that it had been a galley fire when he got very upset to find it was only sarnies for evening meal untill the electrician could repair the galley stove and oven.
Rgds
J.A

While I am not complaining, more relived of my lack of experience.
As a cadet a holding-on coil for a generator circuit breaker on a 220v DC open switchboard burst into flames. I pressed the button to trip the breaker, took a deep breath and blew the flames out.
As 4/E I was driving a lathe and the Indian Serang appeared and said "Sahib, Sahib fire coming". I told my junior to phone the bridge while I went with the Serang to the Alternator flat. I could see that the running alternator had caught fire and it was spreading along the top. Five of the Indian crew were stood in a line with portable foam extinguishers so I grabbed an extinguisher and climbed on to the platform. Knowing that we were mid-Pacific I stopped the engine which blacked the ship out and with no more fuel being pumped almost put out the flames when the crew decided to copy my example so thoroughly that it took the third two days and lecky three to clear the foam. There was no criticism of their enthusiasm.
Another incident while I was J/2/E involved the 2/E tripping the CO2 alarm. We cleared the engine room tout suite but as we were approaching the Dover Straits and it was not known how many bottles had been discharged. I donned a BA set and with engine rev orders shouted down to the main deck I kept descending to the controls to make the alterations.

If there had been any amount of CO2 in the engine room surely the engine would have cut out. Sorry but to don a BA set and enter an unknown atmosphere that may have been lacking in O2, to me pretty fool hardy thing to do Dover straits or not!!!!

Smoking while tippsy or plain drunk. Had a steward on a tanker in Swansea. fell asleep with a ciggy in his mouth there was a fire in his cabin, he died but we were lucky to put th fire out.
My mate who jumped in Aus , had a letter from his wife he had fallen asleep drunk on the sofa, died, sad really, all just to put carcinogens in the lungs.
Des

https://www.google.com/search?q=co2+...obile&ie=UTF-8
The link gives the regulations concerning co2 installation on merchant vessels as a fixed fire fighting system.
To activate the system is a two stage operation from a control cabinet situated outside the space it is designed to protect. On opening the cabinet door the co2 release alarm will start, there are two handles/levers inside, the first one will release the firing bank of the installation which can then when the second lever is pulled this charges the line that is connected to all the other cylinders opening up all the cylinders that are then discharged into the space. The reason for the two stage operation is to ensure all ventilation to the space is stopped (fans will automatically stop when the cabinet door is opened and alarm starts) all fire dampers are closed and all personnel evacuated.
Don't think it is an actual requirement but every vessel is was on the discharge nozzles were fitted with a device that created a high pitched noise when gas through it.
There is also a hand valve in the line after the banks of co2 cylinders that can be closed to prevent accidental discharge when annual servicing and maintenance is carried out.
Rgds
J.A