Lee, "All" the 4 fire departments did was halt the inferno's progress. They defended an imaginary line 5 boats from me with 4 hoses: 5", and 3 x 3" hoses. The 5" and two 3" hoses were on my dock. The heat meant the firemen had to rotate on that line from 0015 hours to 0500 hours. I believe that the 5" produced 720 gallons per minute of a 2' wide mist (at the nozzle) which was largely directed at 4 boats with gasoline tanks onboard.and the adjacent end of the shed with boats behing it. The remaining two 3" hoses with conventional nozzles were employed in a successful attempt to suppress the boats on the other side of the dock focusing on the end boats to stop the fire from progressing down the dock. The 4th hose fought from an adjacent dock to prevent airborne debris from igniting that dock. Both that line and the 5" line were each served by two ganged pumper engines or a total of 4 engines to achieve adequate pressure and volume.
Had the fire started outside the shed and you instantly started to fight the fires origin - one boat; you might have stopped it. But, I would have kept my running shoes on. The first 911 cal by the 80 year old Captain John saved us. The first 2 Bunyan engines were onscene before I was able to get ashore. I was alerted ay 0005 and dog and I were welcomed ashore by firemen asking me to move my car. Just then, at 0015, the shed's steel roof fell down into the flames. Use the time to call 911 and get your boat out. As Keith said, create firebreaks by removing other boats from the fire's path. Then employ your pump to prevent the dock's burning - maybe. Hope for firemen with a plan and the right hardware and speed of action. Ron On Sun, Jan 9, 2011 at 5:12 PM, Lee Huddleston <[email protected]>wrote: > Ron, > > > > Really glad that you and your boat escaped unharmed. Very sad for those > who did lose their boats. Good that no one was killed. > > > > Many years ago I read on the liveaboard list a reminder that normal bilge > pumps cannot keep up with any considerable hole in a hull. Shortly > thereafter I happened to be in a Harbor Freight store and saw a > “contractor’s mud pump” on clearance. It was a large centrifugal pump > directly attached to the shaft of a gasoline engine. I cannot recall the > horse//power or the size of the intake (1 ½ or 2”). I couldn’t resist the > purchase. Later I was able to purchase a relatively-long wire-reinforced > plastic intake hose from an industrial supply house. For the discharge I > was able to purchase a fire hose that happened to be on clearance as well. > This inspired me find a fire hose nozzle at a local fire-control store. > > > > One occasion when my boat started taking on water it was good to have the > pump standing by. On another occasion I did crank up the pump to help save > a neighbor’s boat that almost sank during a hurricane at Sea Gate Marina > north of Beaufort, North Carolina. At one point the fellow handling the > intake sang out, in jest I hope, “shut it off, it’s sucking up the > floorboards!” > > > > My question to you and the list is, assuming that the pump was fueled but > the hoses not yet attached, would it have been possible to use such a pump > to suppress the fire on a neighboring boat and save it and hopefully yours > or would the fierceness of the fire have made such an attempt too dangerous? > > > > Lee Huddleston > > s/v Truelove >
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