Arild, I was puzzled and not so sure you understood what I was saying in the quote you snipped. If you assumed I am recommending "call the fire department". I am not. I am assuming a situation where you are underway when the fire is discovered.
The captain is the first and last line of defense of any boat. If the fire is not promptly controlled on most of our boats, your boat and likely your life will be in jeopardy. It is because fires can and do get out of control in many instances, that it is essential to communicate the distress situation. If you are three or five miles from shore, there is a chance any engine fire will result in your having to abandon ship if the situation goes south and you lose control. While one can, they should probably take advantage of their radio's automatic functions to summon aid to rescue you (not the boat). I will then fight the fire in the meantime. I would not want my boat to sink without a Mayday going out. If you are NOT successful fighting the fire, you likely will be too busy to send an effective mayday, and possibly in the course of the fire progression: (1) you may lose your access to it or functionality of the radio due to loss of battery power, compromise of the antenna cable or progression of flames, or (2) progression of the flames and smoke to isolate you from the cabin or area where the transmitter is kept or you being isolated by flames. There is no downside to pushing the red DISTRESS button on your radio so that a rescue for those on board may be summoned while you are fighting the fire, in case you cannot later summon help and have to go into the water. Otherwise, the boat owner may sadly learn the answer to the question: "How long can you tread water?" Ed --oo0oo-- On Sep 30, 2008, at 10:23 PM, Arild Jensen wrote: Ed Kelly wrote: > In their case within a couple minutes the fire was out of control > and no one would have been able to get back to the radio to > send out a Mayday. But the radio had already done it for them. > REPLY I am surprised at the number of people who assume a land based fire department is going to be of any help in the event of a boat fire. There are countless instances of ship board fires getting out of control because the land based fire department lacked the equipment, and expertise to properly deal with boat or ship fires. One example was the Seattle fire that spread from one isolated dock to eventually engulf something in excess of a dozen boats because the fire fighters cut the burning boat adrift and let the wind push the boat down onto a distant and separated dock full of more boats. Had they left the burning boat secured it would have burned to the water line and perhaps engulfed six other boats. Even if you are anchored within sight of land based equipment, how do you expect them to reach you and what do you expect them to do if they do reach you? Assuming a fire fighting tug is readily available the only remedy open to them is spraying lots of water into the fire. This will have the effect of sinking the vessel regardless of construction material. Except in the case of large ships, no fire fighter will risk boarding a smaller yacht in an attempt to fight the fire up close. Their standard procedures dictate otherwise. We used to invite the local fire department to attend our power squadron courses for a one night demonstration of fire fighting technique. Following the demonstration the Fire chief or his designate would give a lecture. Invariably they gave this advice. "In case of fire; GET OUT! and then call the fire department". After the lecturer I asked the speaker just what they expected to accomplish with that advice. He replied once you get out and are safe, we will come and put out the fire. I asked if they had any amhibious trucks and he looked at me blankly. Then I asked him where he expected people to get out into to wait for for a fire truck to show up. Both questions elicited blank looks from the fire fighter. I explained that he was addressing a group of boaters who would in most cases be on a boat several miles from a point where a road actually ran right down to the water shoreline and more often than not anywhere from 5 to 20 miles fom the nearest fire station. I also pointed out that the majority of people owned boats too small to carry life boats and if they had a tender it was usually an 8 - 10 foot inflatable capable of carrying only 2- 3 people. Maybe 4 at the most. And just what were these people supposed to do sitting out in the open water for who knows how long? This is not an isolated incident. Commercial ports also have experienced ship board fires that the department found impossible to contain. There was a nasty fire aboard a cruise ship in either Miami or Ft.Lauderale with a number of fatalities. Europe and Asia have seen a number of such. fires. Odense in Denmark is the home of a ship yard building giant ships for Maersk. The Eva Maersk burnded just six weeks prior to its scheduled launch. The fire department found itself unable to reach the fire with their equipment and had to improvise. The origin of the fire was the bridge deck where painting was in progress.. The existing ladder trucks were too short. Here is a case of a fire department who has a ship building facility inside its juristiction. They knew exactly what might happen and knew exactly what type size and location of fires woudl be. Even so they were caught by surprise. Do you really expect other fire department to be any better prepared? Norm has it right. Unless you never leave the dock, be prepared to fight a fire by yourself and don't count on any back-up from a fire department. If they are able to reach you at all, they will arrive too late with too little resources and chances are good they will not know any better than you what to do about it. Their first response is likely going to sink the boat. Arild _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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
