The Fire Fighting Course.

[Ralph Knowles]

Did my course at McDonald road in '76. Also got burns on me face from the s/steel buckles on the BA mask. The Lothian fire Brigade trainees were put through the facility before us MN punters because it was 'cooler' and the FB Union would have had a field day if any cadet got burned. The heat source was a series of oil drums loaded with old wooden beer crates from S&N brewery at Holyrood. Heat rose up through the accom. doors and the mock cabins were roasting. Casualties, instructors, were dotted around the place and we had to search and extract them to safety. Three of us found one under a bunk and proceeded to extract him and due to the heat in the alleyway steel deck tried to lift him over the door frame by taking hold of his BA harness and with the bottle pulled close to the chest and one leading in contact with the lifter and the third lifting the feet, we extracted him from the cabin. Unfortunately no3 tripped on the frame, fell on the casualty and no2, me, dropped him onto the hot deck. There is a very peculiar sound from a BA mask when a casualty suddenly gets a burnt backside. We lifted him up again and that's when all of us got our faces burnt, as we had to pass the E.R. door where all the heat was pouring. We found out later that the masks were old stock and had all been replaced with complete rubber ones for use by the 'professionals!

[j.sabourn]

#29 Before the CO2 fire fighting in the E.R. was covered by steam smothering. This was in its time effective. But was superseded by the CO2 more than likely due to the decline of steamships ? JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Saw a deep fat frier go up on the Pretoria, the cook had the good sense to hit the handle on the damper which dropped right onto the flames.
One of the most dangerous items in any galley and if not maintained can be very dangerous.

Not thought about this before but when going ashore on a cruise ship the gun port door used is in crew accomodation area, there are numerous panels with details of most of the ships areas, decks etc. Never taken much notice as you are normally pushed along by the ones behind.

Would that have any bearing on fire fighting Info?

[Des Taff Jenkins]

I remember the ships outline drawings in a picture frame in the alleyway adjacent to the gangway on many ships, probably for any shore fire fighters that had to come and fight a fire on board, I can't remember if they were on both Port and Starboard sides, should imagine they would be.
Des

[j.sabourn]

#33 More than likely John, most safety laws are probably made with tongue in cheek in a lot of cases. I spent a lot of time in Loyang where one of our departed spent the war years as a prisoner of war . However when I was there was known as a seabase for the oil industry and ships used to lie 7 abreast alongside the quays. As regards gangway safety nets you might if lucky see the first ship alongside having a net, after that you were lucky if there was a plank of wood between the rest , a good example of the custom of the port superseding the rules on safety. As regards your fat friar was the cook called Robin Hood or Robin Basket. ? Cheers JS

Another safety law often broken was that one was supposed to get a couple of hours for adjusting to the strangeness of the ship before taking over, but here the Shipowners law superseded this one and were lucky to get 10 minutes , I remember Loyang well for the breaking of common sense laws .
Cheers JS

[Graham Shaw]

[QUOTE=Denis O'Shea;395810]#26 if I remember the 1st E of Canada capsized in Gladstone dock after being flooded to put the fire out, RLT will probably remember this incident and enlighten us further. Den[/QUOTE

I remember learning about this at college in Stability or G.S.K. Similarly ,in the same Gladstone Dock the fire on the Blue Funnel's Pyrrhus eleven years later in November 1964 She was not lost,due to the expertise of the Liverpool Fire Brigade,although she had to be evacuated twice because of danger of capsizing due to the sheer amount of water being pumped into her.The fire took twelve hours to bring under control.



The loss of the Empress of Canada (Sunday 25th January,1953) was probably caused by a discarded fag-end.- No Smoking ! -WRECK REPORT

[happy daze john in oz]

On the inside of all cabin doors is an explanation of where your boat station is.
Life jackets are also in the cabins.
Not much good there if the ship is putting life boats down and you are on deck.
But there are lockers at each boat station with jackets in them and a limited number of the life boats.

[Tony Taylor]

#29 Before the CO2 fire fighting in the E.R. was covered by steam smothering. This was in its time effective. But was superseded by the CO2 more than likely due to the decline of steamships ? JS

steam smothering was commonly fitted for uptake fires but was found in certain circumstances to feed the fire due to water droplets breaking down in its component parts i.e. hydrogen and oxygen.
HI-EX foam was also fitted to pump rooms and could be very effective in shutting down the fire, however if anyone was in there it was very disorienting and I believe led to several casualties.

[John Arton]

Tony
In the late 70's early 80,s there was a SOLAS amendment that require ships carrying certain grain cargoes, soya bean meal ( which can self ignite if wetted, only slightly) being one of them, had to be supplied with some means of extinguishing a hold fire. The bulkers I was mate on we supplied with Hi-Ex foam generating equipment, which consisted of a large water driven fan into which was injected the foam making liquid. The foam was then delivered to the hold via vents using long plastic tubing. It certainly made excellent volumes of foam but as to its means of delivery it seemed to be a bit dubious at best. The gear complied with the regulation but thankfully I never had to use it in anger.
Rgds
J.A.

[j.sabourn]

Carrying motor cars on ships not really originally built for had similar SOLAS amendments .we had 2 holds out of 6 fitted with car decks to load cars on the drive on drive off system , which just meant they were driven down to the ship , which meant they all had fuel in their tanks. We had to get extractor fans fitted in the vents which had to be capable of changing the hold atmosphere at a certain capacity. I soon found out this was causing rust on brand new cars on long passages , so flogged the books and opened a hatch slightly in good weather to aerate the hold.
It was either that or massive insurance claims . The first cargo was 600 volkeswagons from Nordenham ( Germany) to Honolulu . Hold sweating was the main damaging factor. That must of been in 1969 because can remember sitting in a bar in Honolulu watching the moon landing on TV and thinking it was Sci. Fiction.movie. JS