Fire, Fire, Fire

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dlr110
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Fire, Fire, Fire

Post by dlr110 »

Firefighting is a very important skill that everyone needs to learn and practice when assigned to a navy ship. I took two firefighting classes over at the Norfolk Naval Base; shipboard firefighting and flight deck firefighting. In the shipboard firefighting we had a week of classroom training learning about fighting different types of fires, such as compartment fires, liquids and of course kitchen fires due to cooking grease or cleaning solvents. We studied all the firefighting equipment like different hose diameters or different nozzles and applicators. We learned about all the personal protective gear that you use fighting a fire aboard ship. And most importantly working as a team and how to attack the different types of fires.

The second week of training was actually demonstrating how to fight fires from using a small fire extinguisher to a five-man fire hose team. We used chemical agents and hoses all the way up to three-inch hose. The final day was the big one and we broke up into separate hose teams. There was a big building, or mockup, that was like several compartments on a ship and they were able to set it on fire in different places inside and out. Our team had an interior compartment fire and we had to enter the compartment, extinguish the fire before it spread to another compartment and then back out safely.

Because I was the senior man in our class the instructor couldn’t just let me be on the hose, oh no, he had to make me the team leader and nozzle man. So we got all suited up in our protective suits and our OBA’s (Oxygen Breathing Apparatus). Then we all got ready for the instructor to open the compartment door. I told the kid next to me with the twelve-foot spray applicator if he didn’t stay right there with the water spray out in front of me I would feed him to the monster (the fire). Once we started we had only twenty minutes to get the fire out and back out of the compartment, because that is how long your oxygen was going to last in the OBA.

When the instructor opened the door and the heat and flames came rolling out I thought I would suck all the oxygen out of my canister in about sixty seconds. That moment I saw those flames scared the living you know what out of me and I think I almost wet my pants. I opened the hose nozzle to full on and started putting water through the door. As we entered the compartment it was as if we were looking at the fiery pits of hell and the whole room was burning as we found the source of the fire and began to attack it. It took us about four minutes to put it out, but it seemed like a long time before we were able to start backing out. That young sailor stayed right on me and I didn't have to feed him to the monster.
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David R (United States Navy Retired)
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fergusontd
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Re: Fire, Fire, Fire

Post by fergusontd »

::tu:: Went thru the same training at Great Lakes and twice in San Diego. Made the gas house 3 times (oh what fun). Those OBA'S weren't the best but they worked. Only fought 1 fire while aboard ship, a lube oil fire under the H.P. Turbine ( port main engine) while on a 4 hour full power run. ftd
"A pocketknife is a man's best friend!"
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zzyzzogeton
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Re: Fire, Fire, Fire

Post by zzyzzogeton »

Hey, Sr Chief,

That brings back more memories. Went through my first FF training at Texas A&M while in ROTC - the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Services has a shipboard FF mock-up, the bridge structure of an old Liberty ship, along with propane tanks rigged for burning, pipelines, etc. Used for FF training for oil rig workers, Texas Forestry Services, volunteer fire department personnel from across the state.

Back in 1975, they had the Liberty ship and a bunch of oil tanks and a "barn", not a lot, but they ran all the Navy ROTC cadets through a 2 day intro school.

Then I got sent to FF school while waiting to go to Baby SWOS out in San Diego/Coronado Island, but that story has already been told over in the Flooding thread.
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