Boothbay, Maine Boatyard Fire 7-12-08

[Guest]

Series of explosions, flames tear through Boothbay boatyard

Saturday, July 12, 2008 - Bangor Daily News

BOOTHBAY, Maine - A spectacular fire Friday destroyed a commercial boatyard that specialized in tugboats, reducing the wooden harborside structure to ashes and twisted metal.

Pretty intense blaze. Having spent a lot of time in boatyards, I can say that a fire in one is extremely dangerous.

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With the exception of a marine unit, what are some safe ways to fight a boat on fire in a boatyard?

I would assume it's not safe to go out on the docks with a charged hoseline and burning boats (is the dock an exposure)? I would assume nighttime fires complicate things even more.

How do you keep the fire from spreading safely? Deck guns and portable monitors?

[Guest]

A boat on fire in the water is quite a different scenario than a work or storage building on fire with boats in it.

For a boat on fire in the water, tied up in it's slip, the greatest hazard to a firefighter is falling in the water and drowning.

Access can be difficult if it is a large marina. Some marinas have pre-piped standpipes going down the docks. These pre-piped standpipes may save the day, or could be more hindrance than help.

Every situation is different, but my first though would be to write off the vessel on fire and do what could be done to minimize fire spread to other boats and or structures nearby. I have heard of people cutting the lines on boats and sending them floating away to save them, this can be a good strategy, but could also go wrong.... what happens if the boat you just cut loose and is drifting around ends up on fire.... now you have a real fire spread problem.

Most boats burn pretty intensely. Fiberglass will burn hot and fast once it gets going. Most boats have good sized fuel tanks, with who knows how much gasoline or diesel in them.

If the boat on fire can be reached with a high caliber master stream, it is possible to extinguish it. Lobbing tons of water into a boat will probably sink it, and now you have a whole new problem when all that fuel that was in the tanks gets into the waterway.

For a fire in a work or storage structure full of boats, the structure has a tremendous fuel load. Conducting interior operations is extremely dangerous, as the boats are propped up by boatstands, and it wouldn't take much for a boat to fall over on a crew advancing a handline. In the wintertime, most storage facilities have all these boats jammed in tight like sardines, negotiating your way through the maze of boats, boatstands, miscellaneous equipment, etc. is not an easy task.

I posted just a few quick thoughts, looking forward to some more input from others here

[Guest]

Wasn't there recently (in the past few years) a fire at Rex marine in Norwalk? Any ideas from that?

[JBE 328]

You could consider the dock or pier to be an exposure, especially if it is not of fireproof construction. I would ensure no danger to life or health and set up, like Seth said, monitors, deck guns and maybe even some elevated master streams if feasible to prevent fire spread. Especially if waterborne support is either not available or feasible.

[Guest FFNick]

There was a fire at Rex Marine in Norwalk, CT. Hopefully one of the Norwalk guys can shed some light on thier particular incident. If I do recall, they had a problem with boats in vertical storage burning and collapsing.