Another container ship on fire

[Chris Allman]

I remember the smoke hoods very well Keith - every Saturday afternoon at sea - Fire Drill with those smoke hoods, everybody had to have a go, which was only right as everyone would then know what they were like and how to use them. They were not much on their own though, no protective clothing or boots - the mind boggles really and when you think back, no wonder there were deaths at sea because of fire. It was a struggle just to wear them and drag everything along with them, never mind the hose on at full pressure and trying to drag that as well even with a second man behind you.

[Shaun Gander]

I've posted before somewhere but on my first fire fighting course - MNTB days at Camelshead fire station...

Three wee several exercises going on. One crew was using the smoke hoods where someone outside worked a bellows with their foot for fresh air. Two cruise ship girls were operating the bellows for the guys in the smoke chamber, unfortunately they were too busy talking about girlie things to realize that the water from another exercise had run down to where they were and started to pump dirty water into the hoods instead of fresh air. This was the days of real smoke and fire in training so those guys came out of that chamber really quick!

SDG

[robpage]

I think it was around the 1971 that Union Castle seem to have a surplus of people floating around Southampton docks waiting for different Mail ships to come in and hives a few others off the first week was to the Royal Navy firefighting school at HMS Phoenix and the second week we did the senior officers 4 day course I think at Warsash the approach on each of those courses was vastly different when it came to equipment and method of attack in both cases the fires were real hot and smoky . Going back on both occasions I don't think the smoke could actually came into it I think we're both courses you self contained breathing apparatus was used the naval one had two bottles and when you started to run out of air in one you equaliser bottles and on the second equalisation you got the hell out of it

Kicking my heels around Southampton after I have left British and Commonwealth I was sent on a tanker safety course again at Warsash and my great memory of that is the lecturer explained that if you have a rolling crude oil explosion coming along the deck you can actually out run it I don't think I'd want to try that with wheelchair and walking frame

[happy daze john in oz]

Only once on a ship on fire and this was in port.
The Windsor in Durban on sailing day when the donkey boiler threw a fit right along side a settling tank full of fuel.
Scary stuff for any one and even in port there was to some degree a level of panic.

But containers, the concept was that an exporter could load at his factory into a container sealed so' shrinkage' would be removed.
But in such how do the crew of the ship carrying it know exactly what is in it.

With terrorist levels at the level they are there could be at any time a container full of real problems.

Chris, as said before we do tend to go off thread a bit but that is just human nature, one conversation leads to another, no harm intended.

[j.sabourn]

For all the deaths by fire over the years and centuries. The big historical one that gets all the limelight was the Great Fire Of London. Yet this fire was responsible for only 7 deaths. I know 7 deaths is 7 too many but compared to later fires with a large mortality rate doesn’t really match up by comparison. Apart of course for the damage caused. JS

[Chris Allman]

Yes John when you think of the Great Fire of London the area devastated all those narrow streets and alleyways and only 7 deaths - then you look at Grenfell Tower - one block of high rise flats with 72 deaths and 70 injured - high rise, that's apparently what is considered progress in housing - the mind boggles what if and perish the thought, one of those floating blocks of passenger flats called modern cruise liners decides to go on fire - what then .....................................

[John Arton]

Over the years I have done a number of fire fighting courses at Shields, down by the river. Required to do one every 5 years the advanced one which built on the basic course but included fire. Incident management. All done in the two story mock up of a ship's accommodation block and run by the most sadistic bunch of fireman you can come across. Woe betide a hose party that didn't completely soak the lighted braziers full of wood and flammable materials soaked in paraffin. Give a quick blast to put out the flames and move on to the next one and if you had not completely soaked that one then seconds later it would be delighted with even fiercer flames than before. As for the dummy you had to search for and get out via a vertical ladder and small batch, bleddy sure that apart from just being able to fit through the hatch, they filled it with lead weights so as weighed around 16 stone, all in pitch black, smoke filled atmosphere at 45 degrees plus heat, by the time the 30 minutes exercise was over you had sweated off pounds in weight and were completely knackered. Didn't help as virtually every time we had foolishly been on the ale the night before.
Rgds
J.A.

[Red Lead Ted]

I recall from the fire fighting course I done in Banks Rd Speke Liverpool, { Now John Lennon Airport. } Entering the smoke filled room with a full kit on was bloody hard work alright, And if you remember there was always one Oxygen tank rigged with about 4-5 Minutes left in the bottle of course as we all know when the dial dropped below 2 minutes it would warn you with a bloody big whistle that you could not mistake time to get out of there, That's when all hands had to pull together and get you out, Happy days lads another day another dollar. Terry.