T&T: 25 foot boat burns

[Bucks2 at aol.com]

Sounds like Keystone City. I would have thought the  professional in the 
Towboat US vessel would have the proper equipment and  knowledge to handle the 
problem. Depending on the size of the area where the  fire was, wouldn't 
dropping an anchor and tieing to the bow eye have helped  stabilize the boat 
in one place. Take a look and I'll bet the bow eye is still  on the burned 
boat. (after the second whoosh, when the whole boat was involved  it was 
obvious that the man was not alive/savable, and there was nothing to save  in/on 
the boat, it's gonna burn, leave it be, away from everything else) A  
professional who tied a rope to a burning vessel should be demoted to bilge boy.  
Even if he didn't have a grapple hook on a chain he has an anchor with at 
least  a short amount of chain on his boat. Throw the anchor onto the burning 
vessel  and tow it where you want it if it needs to be moved. 
 
"The burning vessel comes to rest against the EMPTY (my  emphasis) docks 
and sets them on fire. Towboat US gets a line on the boat  and is going to tow 
it to the boat
ramp. He has to round the end of a long  dock." 

So you've set the dock on fire, why not leave the boat  there? The FD has 
access to the pier. You've already caused damage to the pier,  the boat is a 
gonner, the pier is on fire. Wipe your hands off and call it a  day. Why 
would you take this torch past more boats and endanger them? 
 
"I know how to assemble hose and began doing so." This is the best tongue  
in cheek statement in the whole post. If you've never seen fire hose up 
close,  the couplings are just like oversize garden hoses. Righty tighty, lefty 
loosey.  Each fire engine, depending on the area it serves carries 500 to 
1000 feet of 2  1/2" fire hose. With docks often more than 3000 feet long you 
can see that you  sometimes have to wait for other rigs to arrive. 
 
I applaud those who tried to help stretch hose down the pier.  It is 
extremely labor intensive and just plain hard work. 
 
"He goes to fight the fire, but that type fire extinguisher wont  
extinguish this class of fire."
 
I'll eliminate deep fat fryer fire extinguishers and exotic  metal (class 
D) extinguishers from this and presume you had either a pressurized  water 
extinguisher, a BC extinguisher or an ABC extinguisher. Any of those three  
will help on this type of fire. Type A would help remove heat (remember folks  
are stretching fire hose, so it does work on fiberglass and fuel) BC or ABC 
work  by interrupting the chain reaction of the fire on a molecular level. 
They work  just fine also. More accurately, they just didn't have enough 
extinguishing  agent to put out the fire. With the exception of causing 
splashing on liquid  fires, use the extinguisher you have on any fire. Even a 
halogenated agent  extinguisher, rarely found on docks, would extinguish some 
fire   before air currents blew the agent away.

"More fire trucks arrive. Hoses have holes, cant get enough  water
pressure. Segments of hose are being replaced."
 
I'm lost on this one. If the FD was carrying bad hose they  should be hung 
out to dry. If the hose was damaged by dragging it down the dock  then its 
just one of those things that happen when you have untrained people  helping. 
Again, thanks to those who helped. 
 
I'm always amazed watching normally reasonable people who go  crazy at the 
sight of fire. Here are Ken's thoughts on fire in a  marina.

1. Leave burning boats where they are! Move uninvolved boats away  from the 
burning one. How much less damage would be caused if the burning boat  was 
left against the repair pier? Do you get a sense of how hard it is to get a  
firehose down a pier/float and get serious water on the fire? By moving the 
fire  around you can easily spread fire to multiple piers. I count the boat 
launch,  repair pier and houseboat pier in this one. Instead of one fire 
area they have  3. What happened when they tried to take the burning small 
craft to the launch  ramp? 
The only exception that I know to this rule is in old marinas  with common 
covers which cover many boats and have solid roofing. The heat from  the 
burning boat banks down and involves everything under the cover. The fire  will 
progress so rapidly you probably won't have time to remove all the  
uninvolved boats. You should be commandeering a dingy to control the burning  boat 
immediately after cutting it loose. (I understand you don't have the  
authority the FD does to officially commandeer something, do you think the  
average boater will get upset if you saved their boat from burning by using  their 
dingy?)  The cover should have fiberglass panels over each boat.  These 
will burn away quickly allowing the superheated gasses to go up instead of  
banking down. Gig Harbor WA lost an entire float worth of boats from this  
engineering error. Seattle WA had 2 fires in this type of cover. If you are  
moored one of these marinas, get the management to retrofit panels in which 
will  allow the fire to vent.
 
2. Moving uninvolved boats away may be just untying and  pushing them out 
of their slip and "out to sea". They can be collected later,  they aren't 
going far. Even bumping against each other will be little damage  because of 
the low speed. 
 
3. Have good extinguishers on board. Check them often. (I do  mine monthly) 
 
4. Help when you can. Most fire departments don't have enough  people on 
the first in rig to do everything that's needed. If you can help carry  hose, 
hold gates open, move boats, etc. please do so. If you're asked to do  
something, please complete your task. The firefighter who gave you that task is  
depending on you to do that job. No, I probably won't remember to come and 
thank  you personally after it's over. I do appreciate your help, thank  you!
 
5. Small fires are easier to extinguish. Learn how to use your  
extinguisher correctly and use it quickly. 
 
6. A fire that is not started will not need extinguished. Do  your boat 
maintenance. If you think something is wrong, fix it, don't take a  chance. 
Each summer we hear of and sometimes see boat fires. Try really hard not  to 
let your boat burn.
 
Good luck on the healing process after witnessing this event.  It is very 
emotional to have witnessed something like this, especially with a  fatality 
involved. 
 
Ken
 
 
In a message dated 9/12/2009 9:00:54 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
trawlers-and-trawlering-request at lists.samurai.com writes:

An older  model 25 foot or so cabin cruiser named Therapy finishes
fueling and  begins to move away from the fuel dock. Husband and wife  on
board.