Just another day at sea

[John]

"Helm in auto, steering two-zero-zero"

"Very good"

The Helmsman, Able Seaman Amand Séverin, had been told by Third Mate Elouan Renaud to place the Helm in auto as the ship was now in open water. An hour ago, they had just left the city of Toulon and were on their way to Nouakchott in Mauritania. The vessel was MV Belrose, a Liquefied petroleum gas carrier was carrying 200,000 Tonnes of LPG, meaning the vessel was fully pressurized.

It was just after 2200, which meant Séverin had two hours left on his watch before he could go to bed. However, that was all about to change for him. The bridge was made up of three console sections. Communications, engineering and navigation. On the Engineering console, it had an alarm panel which was an alarm for every single point on the ship, not just the engineering space. So there were always alarms on there - airlocks being opened, engine warnings and the likes. The alarm sounded, and Renaud went to check "I hate these alarms, it's like every two minutes". This time, it was not a normal alarm, a smoke detector head had been activated. "Fuck sake" Renaud muttered, before speaking out. "Probably dust from the clutch". The Officer, only 26 years old, picked up the mouthpiece to pipe around the ship. "Smoke detector head activated, gear space. Emergency Party and personnel in the vicinity to investigate.". He placed the mouthpiece down and waited for the bridge phone to ring. He wasn't worried, he thought it would be the usual non emergency.

A few minutes passed, and the phone rang. He picked it up, speaking into it. "Bridge, officer of the watch." He then heard the word he never wanted to hear. Fire. The gears had overheated and sparked, causing the gear lubicant to catch fire. "Thank you." He placed the phone down and picked up the pipe mouthpiece once again. "The last alarm has been investigated. Fire, fire, fire. Fire in the gear space. Hands to emergency stations. Captain and Chief Mate to the bridge. Ventilation has been crash stopped." He then pressed the "General alarm" button on the pipe system control panel. The General Alarm rang out, it was loud.

Whilst this was happening, the other Watchkeeper, Able Seaman Noam Bourreau, picking up the radio to contact all ships in the vicinity, as well as shore authorities. "Pan Pan, Pan Pan, Pan pan. This is MV Belrose in position 42° 6' 28.818'' North, 3° 57' 5.4216'' East. Fire onboard."

The person who discovered the fire was the Duty Motorman, a 22 year old lad who was on his first ship after training. When the pipe had been made, he went to the gear space and discovered the fire. After his LVAs, which consists of simply shouting "fire" over and over again were answered. He grabbed the nearest fire extinguisher and began fighting the fire. It wasn't long until he was relieved, two members of the Emergency party appeared. Both set up in Breathing Apparatus and with fire extinguishers. They entered the compartment and took position next to the motorman, who gave them a brief on what the current situation was. They took over fighting the fire whilst he backed out. And that was the current situation, the two emergency party members were in there fighting the fire, whilst a third was bringing extra extinguishers so the two could keep fighting.

By now, the ship was fully mustered and the two Fire Parties were getting ready. Each party was made up of ten crew, five of whom were the fire team (Team leader, firefighter, waterwall, hydrant operator and hose handler). The fire team were being fitted with their bunker gear and SCBAs, testing their helmet comms etc. Whilst all this was happening - the emergency party, apart from the three directly involved with the fire, were rigging up hoses for the fire teams to use. A single firefighter hose and single waterwall hose were rigged. As always, it was the first team ready that had to go in - which they did.

Once in, the Firefighter and Waterwall took control of the extinguishers from the emergency party, who backed out and then gave the same type of brief they had recieved to the team leader. Whilst he was deciding the next course of action, something went wrong. The fire flashed over and temperature soared inside the compartment. The teamleader pressed his radio button, to communicate with his team and uttered one single word. "Retreat". The two men inside the compartment, whilst still firing the extinguishers, began moving out. Once out, the door to the compartment was closed.

The team leader contacted the Bridge, where the Captain and Chief mate now were, and told them that they were beaten back and the compartment was closed off. The Captain, after hearing this, picked up the pipe. "IC-1 from the Bridge. The fireteam have been beaten back and a re-entry is now required. Command priority is preservation of life."

Now the wait was on for the fire to hopefully die down a little from the lack of oxygen..

 

[John]

Four hours had passed since the compartment was closed. By this time, the other Fire Party had replaced the original and the team leader had been given the brief. The whole time, the ship had remained at emergency stations. The emergency party had been working hard to boundry cool the compartment (to prevent the fire from travelling between compartments).

Now it was what every sailor hated and feared, a re-entry into a burning compartment. It is never definite what happens during this procedure, will the fire remain at its level, or will the increase in oxygen cause another flashover? One thing for definite though, was that the fire needed to be extinguished. It was the team leaders job to handle this, the Team Leader was Fourth Engineer Firmin Gosse, a sailor from Martinique. Two of the members of the Fire Party, the Firefighter and Waterwall, knelt down and picked up their respective hoses. Whilst they were there, 4/E Gosse contacted the Bridge, he wanted to confirm that the compartment was electrically safe. After a few moments, a pipe came over from the Bridge. "IC-1 from the Bridge. The Fire Party is prepped for re-entry. Compartment is HV safe. Command priority remains preservation of life."

Once this pipe came over, the Team Leader approached the waterwall and knelt down behind him. His arm went across the Waterwalls back, whilst his free hand pressed the button on the side of his helmet. His commands nearly shouted. "Hydrant opertator, on water to the waterwall!" After this command, the water was on and the hose was filled instantly - 10 bar of pressure was now waiting to be released. "Hydrant operator, on water to the firefighter!". Again the hose was pressurized, after this, the hose handler came in behind the firefighter and backed him up, grabbing the hose. The hydrant operator, place the spit into the drum of foam. "Firefighter, in a safe direction. Prove foam!" Upon hearing this, the firefighter turned into the corner and turned on his firehose. At first water came out, but it was followed by a thick white foam. He turned off the hose when he sees the foam.
"Waterwall. On waterwall!" Upon hearing this, the waterwall turned his nozzle, both men had to push down to keep the nozzle under control when it first opened - when it was fully opened, a ten food disc of water was spurting out. "Firefighter, take control of the door!" The firefighter stood up, placing his back to the door and his right hand on the dog. "Firefighter, open the door!" After this command, the Firefighter pushed the dog up and opened the door slightly, an orange glow filled the room instantly, along with thick black smoke. When the door was ajar, the waterwall pushed his nozzle in, it sitting in the corner of the door and creating a seal. When this was inplace, the firefighter opened the door all the way and attached it back.

The firefighter took a knee again, his knee on line with waterwall man. The same command from the teamleader.. "Firefighter, in a safe direction. Prove foam!" Once again, the firefighter turned his hose into the corner and turned it on, the white foam covering the deck. This time however, he did not turn it off. "Firefighter, in hose!" With this command, the firefighter turned his hose into the fire, the stream of foam going through the waterwall. "Firefighter. Fight the fire!" the firefighter did so. His hose was aimed at the deckhead, he was moving it in a figure of eight. This action cooled the air and allowed the foam to fall off the deckhead directly into the fire.

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From the port city of Toulon, the Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer, a Volunteer charity based SAR group had deployed one of their All weather lifeboats to possibly provide assistance to the vessel.

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