Fire. Let's be safe with our projects!

Had a happening here a bit ago. No one was hurt. Four boats were due to be pulled out the day of the problem. I was on the first day of a job at just arm's reach from the problem. I could see the smoke from near (I hoped near) my project from ten minutes away.

Enough water washed under our boat to undermine and threaten to spill us. Our fire department layed six absorbs in the stream of fuel and chemicals running to the bay.
The usual culprit - "safe" infra-red heat lamp directing point heat and acetone use... knock the lamp over and instant fireball. How many more times must boats burn before they include common sense in Naval Architect school (An NA started the fire).
If one squints, voilà, a view from thirty years past! (I don't think fire can cause steel beams to bend like that - The Jews and Dick Cheney must have caused this - will report back)

Resin for sale. Slightly burned, change of plans - No longer needed. The boat that was in that shed had one, or more, water fogs on it from the time I arrived at 8:00AM until the end. It got by with smoke damage, all glass broken, and melted into a puddle life raft and EPIRB. A few blisters and, I would think, a downgrade in trust in structural integrity.

Aluminum is obviously unsafe as a boatbuilding material...

See? The balsa-cored boat, a Vega, still has a shape (In fact, seriously, the only one in the thick of the heat to maintain what would be floatability). The engines are fine other than water-logged and the diesel is still in the balsa-cored tanks. In one of the other pics, a black stain is what is left from a foam cored boat.

One who works in visqueen houses...

Our's is only this far off.

Some of what I was doing to a friend's boat (New plywood where water was allowed to get in around the windows, as usual, for one project. Putting the same glass back in but will double epoxy the endgrain. ) Epoxy, 2408, putty, sanding dust, and nearly an infarction until I realized it was not a fire I started. I'm going to go with Devoe 235, then 229 in the next couple of days. He likes Wingwalk on the decks and I'm not having a part in that. I hate putty. I hate sandpaper.

Wienies, anyone? That's a Lugger, I think, behind the barbeque, if anyone's interested. The foam boat it was in at least set it down gently on the ground!

 

Wow.. can't say much more..

 

A bunch of years ago one of the big boatyards in Bellingham caught fire and there was an entire tankcar of resin exposed. I guess the railroad send a crew with an engine to pull it out, but the fire chief nixed that idea. Still, raised everyone's blood pressure.

In a fire the resin in fiberglass acts as a combustible liquid once it melts and becomes just that much more fuel. Puts off lots of toxic gas in the process, too. Despite being solid under normal circumstances, both fiberglass and creosoted wood fires (i.e. pier fires) are best treated as class B (flammable liquid) fires and fought as such.

 

Ya......one worker using solvent....his mate using a blow torch...KABOOM

 

The importance of staying upwind and not breathing ANY of the fumes from a boat fire cannot be over-emphasized. If you can smell it, you're breathing it. You can still fight the fire, from a distance, if you've got the right stuff, foam, but stay upwind and be mindfull of explosions, sinking and, yes, fumes. Sometimes, all you can do is protect the boats nearby (containment) with water.

"A mg of prevention is worth a kg of cure..."

-Tom

 

Yeah, Michael, and not to take anything away from the four total losses here where folks put their lives into their boats for a winter, but that looks like a nicer boat, too.
All kinds of small print disavowing liability by the shipyard, two of the boats were uninsured, one was of a Russian family I saw when I arrived - It was a good thing that their boat was already gone when they arrived as I think they were of a mind-set to retrieve their boat from the flames (the flames were still easily 50' tall at that point). The Vega on the left was insured. It was Wes Humbyrd's, the Quixotic, and the insurance company lays responsibility on him to dispose of it and they will later reimburse... just what he needs to be doing instead of getting his new boat ready for the next two months. They paid him his purchase price plus the price of installed components - nothing for the winter of labor rubbing love into that old girl. The new survey with a likely much higher valuation was schedueled before he was to be launched on the series of high tides that just happened. It looks like a Superfund sight and they are leaving him to deal with it - great.
The fire department would not use adapters to use water from four or five private water trucks available - they just drove their two tankers back and forth to wherever they got their's. I saw the nearest fire hydrant being steamed out (ice-freed) after the fire... I think that there may be some lawsuits forthcoming. The firemen all have supplied air, Tom. The explosion factor is a real consideration - who knows what could be in those buildings and only one owner could be contacted in time to give an inventory of possible chemicals but each of the sheds has a 500 gal diesel tank and, at least, some acetone, denatured alcohol, or turpentine laying around. I imagine partial drums of resin could be a bomb.

 

What a sad occurence. It is good no one lost a life.

 

"The firemen all have supplied air, Tom." ...and they are well educated on how and when to use it. Unfortunately, some still do not in the "heat of the moment".

My comments were aimed at those of us who come upon a fire who don't have breathing apparatus nor the training, but who feel compelled to do something, to help.

-Tom

 

For those of us who aren't trained as firefighters, the best things to do are:

- If there's a fire extinguisher handy, AND the fire is small (no bigger than a campfire), AND we know how to use a fire extinguisher: Put it out, quickly, before it spreads.

- In any other case: Stay the !@#$ away from it. Keep well upwind. Call the fire department if they don't already know, but STAY AWAY FROM THE FIRE. Your life is worth one hell of a lot more than an inanimate object, no matter how much you or your friend have emotionally and financially invested in that object.


About the photo of the twisted beams: No, open fires generally will not cause structural steel to bend like that. But fire can soften steel enough that the smaller bracing members will start to buckle, and the whole frame- now lacking in shear support- can start to twist and shear in ways it was never meant to handle. The weight of the structure does the rest (I've seen similar things happen on buildings under construction- no fire, just sloppy temporary bracing). Even for this to happen, though, you need one hell of a hot fire- lots of good liquid fuels and lots of air flow- for extended periods of time.

 

Also a good idea to have 2 escape routes.... Bad news running into the flames and smoke to get down the ladder.

 

Oh I know that sick feeling! I live out on the prairies where you can see a column of smoke 2 hours before you reach it. More than once I have "put the pedal down" to rush home, thinking of any/all the things that could have lit up my shop only to find the fire was a mile away when I got there.

I have to confess that I am one of those people who rush into an emergency while everyone else is running away but only when I know what I am getting into. On one occasion, after extinguishing a fire with a couple of 20 pound extinguishers, the fire chief asked me if I knew what was in the room that was involved. I said "Yes, 180 gallons of volatile solvent - I figured I had more chance of putting the fire out than out-running the fireball!"

 

Man, what a bummer.

 

Crankshaft, did it make your news up there? I don't get the paper.
Dianne, every column of smoke I see from thirty miles out seems to eminate from MY house. Yes, that's the feeling we hate.
Ondarvr, I don't know HOW you knew so fast of the fire and its circumstances (Freddy?) nor how you know the Irish I'm working on but I mentioned you to Ben (Sean's boy) and he's curious... perhaps you could PM me or book a trip or something. Sorry, I don't check my PMs but when I remember so it's pretty erratic. I haven't even been on the site much lately and will be hopping until September as I havn't even taken care of my boat yet, there's cod to catch, a surgery, investments to tend, tourist season imminent, a permit to sell, and a house to buy (looks like Austin it is).

 

Not sure, I don't watch much local news, but I just got back from Homer, and am going back Monday to Seldovia I think. Where was this at?

 

Northern Enterprises, just towards the water from the Gear Shed.