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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 8
April 2006
‘Box theory’ protects safety gear from fire
 After reading the Fish Safe article by Ann Backus in the January issue of CFN about the devastating fire on John Sanfilippo’s dragger Giovanna and his survival, I was prompted to dedicate my next three articles to onboard fires.
This piece will cover how to protect your safety equipment from fire. Next time, we’ll look at the common causes and locations of onboard fires. And after that, we’ll review the proper steps to take in fighting fire aboard boats of various sizes.
Many times in a fire at sea, the life raft, life rings, EPIRB, PFDs, and immersion suits are burned up before it occurs to anyone that they might have to abandon the burning vessel. Therefore, it’s important to make provisions to safeguard your gear before a fire incident and to drill your crew on how to prepare life saving equipment in the event of an actual fire.
Start by utilizing and envisioning the “box theory.” By this, I mean determine the fire’s boundaries on all sides, bottom, top, corners, and outside.
At the first sign of fire, shut doors and hatches, shut down engines, close off ventilation and exhaust systems, and turn off electricity and fuel lines in the fire area.
Establishing boundaries is obviously very taxing on crew members and their resources. However, to attack a fire without first establishing boundaries is an invitation to disaster.
Heat melts plastic
Recognize that there will be excessive heat within the boundaries. This creates an immediate need to remove all life saving equipment that is touching or in close proximity to the boundary box.
Safety equipment can be rendered useless when exposed to heat and flame. Immersion suits have melted. Hydrostatic release mechanisms also have melted and not functioned, preventing EPIRBs and life rafts from floating free. Also, the life raft gasket and raft itself can melt, fusing the canister together so that the raft cannot deploy. This is what may have happened on John Sanfilippo’s Giovanna in November 2005.
On the smaller inshore vessel, this kind of damage can happen in minutes. On larger vessels there are more crewmembers to respond and slightly more time.
Placing safety equipment
Time and location are the key factors in deciding where to locate your life saving equipment. On smaller boats, I suggest that immersion suits and EPIRBs be located just steps from the working deck area or the exit of the pilothouse.
EPIRBs placed on the coachtop – especially on single-handed vessels – are difficult and time-consuming to retrieve.
Consider tossing your immersion suit and EPIRB on the aft deck and then attacking the fire. If the fire gets out of control, you may have those few precious minutes to launch your raft, then don your immersion suit and grab the EPIRB. That way, you have your most important life saving gear – immersion suit, EPIRB, and life raft.
On larger vessels, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of locating your immersion suits where they are readily available. Put them in a rack by the cabin door or under the overhang on the outside deck.
Your EPIRB, flares, and life raft are best located several deck levels above the engine room and easily accessible.
Obviously, this will vary with each vessel and you will need to tailor the location of your life saving equipment to your vessel based on its unique design.
Always remember this: the importance of training cannot be overemphasized. This is especially true at sea where the crews are the fire fighters. Away from port there are no fire departments to call for help.
Fred Mattera
NESTCo
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