Lee,
Excellent reporting on the marina fire.
Thank you.
Norm
S/V Bandersnatch
Lying Julington Creek FL
N30 07.68 W081 38.47
----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Rogers
To: [email protected]
Sent: 1/9/2011 6:16:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] Marina Fire
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 contractors 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 couldnt 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
neighbors 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, its 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
_______________________________________________
Liveaboard mailing list
[email protected]
To adjust your membership settings over the web
http://liveaboardonline.com/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.liveaboardonline.com/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
