The Fire Fighting Course.

[Red Lead Ted]

I would agree John, I imagine during the war years if you where hit by a couple of torpedoes and the inevitable explosion an perusing fire lets not forget we all had a muster point on board in case of fire.
1 It could be the case half the ships company had perished,
2 It could be possible your muster point had gone up in smoke with the explosion, A right ball of confusion. I still cast my mind back to December 1971 when i witnessed T@G Harrisons of London M.V. HARMATTEN, Being struck by an Indian gun boat, I think i sent everyone who wanted it Capt Houston's personal account of the events of the night of the 9th December 1971, when we aboard the M.V. EUCADIA and the Harmattan, Where the only two British merchant ships in the Bay of Bengal I remember her burning and thinking what a bloody situation to find yourself in All in the past now R.I.P. All the seaman who perished aboard her, But yes fire at sea had to be the number one i my opinion. Regards all Terry.

[David Sankson]

It's one of those courses that stays with you forever. I did mine at the RN training site HMS Phoenix in the 1960's. It was a mixed class of MN & RN, so you can imagine the rivalry.
I remember the engine room fire, and we were twined RN/MN one with water wall and one with jet, they had to open up the ships sides to rescue me, the RN chap with the water wall bottled it and left me on my own, I thought it was starting to get very hot, when the rescue team arrived.
The one thing that stands out was putting out electrical fire with water, and we used a live supply.
I still remember 20ft away for fresh water, 25ft for sea water with spray nozzle and keep it moving.
In my time at sea I never found and electrical switch board you could stand 10ft away from, and I suspect RN ships were the same.
It was an experience which stayed with me all my life and gave respect to those who do it for a living.

[John Arton]

I did all my fire fighting courses at south Shields at the college's dedicated fire training center in Wapping street. The basic course lasted 3 days, two days of theory and demonstration using extinguishers etc. And on the third day into the accommodation mock up to extinguish a fire, set by part time sadistic instructors, dragging fully charged hoses and kitted out in fire retardant gear and B.A. sets. Just spraying the lit containers full of oil soaked wood and straw to extinguish the flames would result in them being relit by the instructor once you moved on, you had to not only put the fire out but soak the seat of the fire to ensure it could not reignite.
Like a fool I had been partying at the hauf brau house in Newcastle and the shoreline in shields the previous night so was feeling terribly rough and hung over on the day of the live exercise. Was just about to puke into my B.A. face mask when another guys low level alarm went off so the exercise was halted but we were all given a pass.
For mates and masters and nowadays every 5 years, we took the 5 day advanced course which apart from fire fighting and rescue under live fire exercise, also included fire management techniques such as running a time board for B.A. wearers and having extra air bottles on hand to enable any wearer to have a new fully charged bottle should they need it in order to carry on the fire and rescue exercise. The mock up had grown to three levels and you went in at the top and down through hatches and ladders searching for a casualty and extinguishing fires. The exercise lasted for around one and a half hours and was bloody knackering.
Rgds
J.A.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

After reading these posts including Ted's for his ABs ticket, I can't remember ever doing a fire course while at sea, even on the the Vindi sea School, other than the usual fire drill at sea. The only one I did was around 1997 when we took the Ferry South Steyne in to the Naval dockyard in Sydney. and we had to do a short course on firefighting with the Aus Navy.
Des

[j.sabourn]

#7.. MY memories of precautions against ship fires in port ...a plan of the ships Arrangement plan used to be kept at the top of the accomodation ladder in a metal tube. I could never picture in my mind , a fire crew drawing up alongside a blazing ship and them all clustered around the ships arrangement plan and being able to understand it in the very restricted time limits they had . The same as any fire speed is essential to prevent it the spread of , which is usually voracious . The only advantage they had was the adequate water supply available . JS

[j.sabourn]

#14.. Des today most of your life is spent doing different courses , different from the old ones. I am not quite sure but others may have better idea , but most larger vessels today have heli pads on them for crew changes etc. every helicopter landing on any vessel used to have by law a designated fireman completely covered in a fire resistant suit and manning a foam cannon already to discharge in case of fire.I don’t know if there was a special course for this ?
Seamen today are expected to have done Fire courses, FRC courses , Huet courses, Landing course for helicopter landing officer, clean sea courses that is for oil spills, Sea survival courses , medical courses, Advance medical courses, and probably another dozen that have slipped my memory at the moment. These are for ordinary seamen apart from the courses they require for any specialised duties they may have. It is not a world as once was deck boy, JOS, SOS, EDH, AB. Out here as you probably know today is PIR , ( provisional intergrated rating) IR and senior IR ( Bosun or leading hand ) plus all the courses imagineable. The only thing sadly lacking are the shortage of manpower, so if waving a piece of paper at the problem doesnt work then your up the creek without the proverbial paddle. Cheers JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Times are forever changing.
First cruise we did back in 2008 all passengers had to assemble by their designated life boat wearing life jacket.
Two passengers who failed to turn up were put off before we sailed.
The officers went through all the requirements.

By 2010 passengers now had to gather at their designated boat station, which could be any part of the ship, some in a bar, some in the theatre etc.
Life jackets had to be brought along and we were shown how to put them on.

By 2014 assemblies in such areas was still the practice but no longer needed to bring your life jacket.
There had been a number of passengers who had tripped up on the traces of the jackets.

2019, no more assemblies, but you must watch the TV presentation in your state room, cabin to all of us, and the system knows who has and who has not seen it.

At this rate by 2030 passengers may have to bring their own.

[j.sabourn]

Every ship carries a salvage pump or used to I’ve pumped out a flooded hold using one drop that over the side and see if it works , worked in water for me , unless it was a miracle . JS

[Keith Tindell]

John 15, got to disagree with you there on the ships plans. When arriving at a ships fire, the fire service will have its own plan, and a multi crew response for even the smallest report of a fire. If the senior officers have a plan of the ship, this enables them when committing BA wearers to give them some idea of the route to take, thats assuming that an officer from the ship has met the crews and hopefully has some idea where the main seat of the fire is. If they have an idea of the area of the fire, the plan we worked to was to send a team in with a guide line, and this is the equivalent of a highway for subsequent teams to follow , remember these guys have 35 minutes working duration max. even in large buildings, hotels etc, we do visits so that in the event of fire we have a plan of the building to give BA teams a chance to work quickly.

[j.sabourn]

The plan left in a tube painted red at the top of the gangway was a plan off the ships general accomodation plan if required only , or better known as the general arrangement plan . It was there for the reason that the ministry of transport at one time made it compulsory to have. Whether it was ever used have no idea. Cheers JS .