Responses from CT's message,
> Suck or blow, you're in effect creating a furnace unless you do something > about the fire. > Norm - Agreed. > If the space was properly designed there should already be ample air > entering/exiting the space to support diesel ops. No need to add more. Norm - An operating engine draws air into the ER as it needs it. If the engine is not operating no air will enter the ER unless there is a fan or a wind scoop involved. Ventilation in excess of what the engine needs to operate will keep ER temps down. The duct I recently installed will allow me to fully close the ER hatch and reduce ambient engine noise, something I have not been able to do up to this point to insure the engine had enough air to breathe well. Detroit engines, due to their two-stroke design, are particularly sensitive to restrictions in the flow of combustion air through them. > Your local fire department probably has a smoke generator and since they > might be the one's putting out the fire (unless you're anchored/moored > offshore). You might be able to rent it.. Norm - We do anchor only, as you might have gathered from the recent Livaboard thread. No boats on fire that I have had any knowledge of, and there have been several, were put out by the Fire Department. They all burned until they sank. From prior experience, I have no faith that the Fire Department or the Police Departmen will help me in any manner whatsoever. The biggest lie I have found in my life is: "I'm from the Government and I'm here to help you." Perhaps I can rent a smoke machine like they use to check air flows in a building or use in stage acts. > Seems to me the safer option is to have automatic or manual dampers that > will shutdown the air into the space (in attempt to choke the fire) and have > an automatic extinguishing system that, if not enough capacity to completely > fill the engine room, can at least be directed at most likely sources of > fire. That will keep you out and safe so you can do the cleanup and be > ready for the next fire... Norm - If an automatic system is installed that will indeed seal the ER, and then flood the ER with CO2 or Halon, perhaps it would work. Unless one rigged a separate air intake for combustion air to the main engine it would shut down so the system could not be completely automatic so as not to shut down the main engine at a dangerous time navigationally. Of course there would have to be a way to vent the air out as the CO2 is released too. Since there is no way to know in advance where the fire would break out the entire ER would have to be thoroughly flooded. Doing all of the above would be a major effort and expense that I have never seen or heard done in an small yacht. Also, there is the possibility that a fire could release a oxidant in the fuel itself. Fires can burn without an obvious source of oxygen. I am reminded of underground forest fires and coal seam fires. American President Lines, my last employer, refused to carry charcoal because of an incident aboard one of their ships. The way I heard it one dark night the Lookout came into the wheelhouse and asked the Mate to step outside and look at something. The Lookout indicated a stack of forty-foot containers and asked the Mate if he saw anything unusual. One of the boxes was glowing a dull red. They rigged fire hoses to keep the adjacent boxes cool and never carried charcoal again. They also consider raw cotton a dangerous cargo. Even fully packed by machine presses, the cotton bales can burn. Coal fires on ships in the old days at least, were impossible to put out. I believe there was a stroy by Joseph Conrad where the crew had to abandon ship due to a coal fire. For my money, I would rather set myself up to be able to attack the fire head-on, up-close and personal, rather than rely on complex automatic machinery. For the record, I have had two surprise fires on my boat. The first was when I was welding (at anchor) near the top of the wheelhouse. A piece of slag dropped down through an open porthole into the galley and set a roll of paper towels on fire. When I flipped my welding mask up I saw the flame inside the porthole and quenched the fire with water very shortly thereafter. The second was under the main berth. I had been working under the berth; everything stored there had been removed and the berth fans disconnected. One of the cats got into the space and moved one of the fan wires so that the connector touched a hull ground. The wire was quite light and got hot enough to set Styrofoam insulation alight with a small smokey flame. No breakers or fuses popped. The smoke alarm mounted at the main berth alarmed but no-one heard it (we were underway) until a guest went below to get some water. I immediately lifted the berth and extinguished the fire with dry chemical. An automatic system would not have helped in either of these cases, although the main berth smoke alarm did work. Early detection is key in fighting a fire. Perhaps an alarm circuit hooking all the smoke alarms together ( I have four) would let me know one was sounding no matter where I was on the boat. Does anyone know of a battery operated alarm that will send a wireless alarm system to other alarm sounders? Norm S/V Bandersnatch Lying Julington Creek 30 07.695N 081 38.484W _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
