To Your Health: Take steps now to prevent on board fire

It’s the end of the day, you hauled your last trap, and you smell smoke.

It’s a scenario no fisherman ever wants to experience. But it does happen and typically, it happens fast.

The scalloper Ocean Otter caught fire in June this year in the Bay of Fundy. All four on board survived. CBC photo.

Staying safe when fire breaks out while fishing takes planning and mental preparation. As John McMillan, president of McMillan Offshore Survival Training in Belfast, said, “The best way to fight fire is the safest.” That means having the equipment you need and knowing what to do when your adrenaline is pumping.

Fire needs three things: fuel, heat and oxygen. To control a fire on board your vessel, you need to control the fuel, reduce the oxygen, and cool the material below its flashpoint. Plus you need to do all that while keeping you and the crew safe.

“Remember, the extinguisher agent puts out the fire, not you,” McMillan said. He cautions fishermen, for example, not to immediately run into the engine room if a fire is detected. “If the gauge [on the extinguisher] is in the green, that means it’s pressurized at 195 psi. Stand back eight to ten feet and then pull the pin, aim and sweep slowly. Don’t get close to the fire,” he said.

Having the right fire extinguishers, knowing where they are, and knowing how to properly fight a fire are important to controlling a fire if one breaks out. Photo courtesy of National Fisherman.

Smoke can tell you a lot about the nature of the fire. A fire fed by diesel fuel will have darker smoke. An electrical fire produces lighter smoke. The trick is to locate the flames, assess how large the fire is and, if possible, use the right equipment to put it out.

“The number one cause of death in a fire is smoke inhalation,” McMillan said.

“Smoke is toxic.”

If you are using the deck hose to squelch the flames, keep the hose near your mouth. “Tuck it under your arm. Water transfers smoke. It will clear the air near your mouth and keep it cool,” he said. You can also get close to floor, where the air will be cooler. “If you are down at baseboard level, that air is around 100o,” McMillan explained. “Door knob level, 300o. Eye level 500 to 600o. Get your airway down low.”

McMillan recommends all fishermen take a safety course both to understand the procedures and equipment for fighting a fire and for the mental preparation it provides. “Get a smoke alarm. Fix things beforehand. Don’t wait another year. When fire breaks out, make an early May Day call. Talk to older fishermen who came through fires,” he said. “If you don’t know it’s unsafe out there, you shouldn’t be out.”

Do what you can to prevent fire, now

“Fire is preventable.”

It’s the first thing that Greg Sholly, Drill Safety and Sea Safety instructor of Fishing Partnership Support Services and manager of LifeRaft Services in York, says when asked about fire safety.

It takes little time to do some simple things to try to keep your vessel safe from fire, according to Sholly. “Inspect your fuel system, the lines and the tanks. Check your electrical systems for corrosion on the fittings or damaged wires. Keep your engine room clean,” he said. Take a good look at your hydraulic lines. Hydraulic fluid leaks are a common cause of fires. “It’s usually a pinhole leak that will shoot atomized fluid out. It’s highly flammable,” Sholly said.

Before you leave the dock, test your smoke alarm to be sure it works and that it’s not obstructed by something. For bigger boats equipped with dry chem extinguishers, rotate or shake them once a month to be sure the chemical agents are not clumping. For smaller boats, check that the extinguisher is not out of date and that its pressure gauge is in the green. Make sure it is easily accessible. “Don’t put it in the engine room, that does no good if there’s an engine fire. And don’t hang a jacket or a hat on it so it’s not easily found in an emergency,” Sholly said.

Fires happen on board all the time, Sholly emphasized. Your mental preparation if a fire breaks out is as important as your equipment. “Doing drills as a team is the best thing. It builds confidence that you can rely on each other in an emergency, that everyone knows what to do,” he said. Ideally you should hold drills once a month on everything from a man overboard emergency to fire to build your own and the crew’s skills. “Drills help you become an asset to every other fisherman out there,” Sholly said.