Author Topic: Shipboard Firefighting on Museum Submarines  (Read 7423 times)

Offline Brian Flynn

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Shipboard Firefighting on Museum Submarines
« on: November 22, 2008, 10:14:28 PM »
I have almost finished the first draft on "Shipboard Fire-Fighting on Museum Submarines".  Rather than try to hash out things myself, I'd like to ask for community input on how to finish this document.  To that end, I'm posting the draft version here. 

If you'd like to, please review and post comments here.  When posting, please reference a section number and your comments.  I will periodically incorporate the comments and repost.

The purpose of this document is to spark thought and provide a rough guide for each boat to develop it's own fire plans.

Have at it

Brian

Offline Lance Dean

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Re: Shipboard Firefighting on Museum Submarines
« Reply #1 on: November 22, 2008, 10:56:55 PM »
Very nice Brian, BZ to you!

Offline JTheotonio

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Re: Shipboard Firefighting on Museum Submarines
« Reply #2 on: November 23, 2008, 09:12:51 AM »
Brian - well done.  Here are some suggestions.

Emergency lighting section
Emergency lights should be tested periodically
Docents should receive training on emergency lighting
Consider the placement of flashlights - hidden from normal view in each compartment as another source of emergency lighting

Try not to use acronyms - many people reading this may not be familiar with Navy slang/terms such as WTD

Qualifications:
add annual or periodic training on emergency lighting and how to operator the bulkhead flapper valves, plus their location in each compartment (remember from school of the boat which compartments do not have bulkhead flapper valves?)

Prevention
besides oily rags add any combustible material such as paint and paint thinners, etc

On checklist
Add training for docents.

Also when this is done you may want to share this with your local fire departments.  Hope this helps - good work.  This will be helpful to all museum boats.
-----
From the Forward Torpedo Room

John

Offline Paul Farace

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Re: Shipboard Firefighting on Museum Submarines
« Reply #3 on: November 23, 2008, 11:55:35 PM »
Gave the document a quick scan and it seems very thorough! Well done! and let me second the BZ!   :smitten:

Luckily we had only one "almost fire" event in the 32 years we have been open to the public.  A motor control board overheated and began smoking to an alarming level...  as in any smoke is BAD on a smoke boat!  The visitors aboard were evacuated and the system deenergized. 

Aboard COD we have extinguishers in every compartment and emergency lighting. Ofcourse the one really worrisome aspect is our vertical ladders. I discussed this with a firechief once and he said the staircases on other boats (he had visited several other museum boats) were in his opinion about the same hazard as a vertical ladder, as in if a numbskull panics it makes little difference if the route out is a ladder or stairs, they're gonna block it.

My major concern is that our "safety screen doors" covering the open hatches are made of heavy steel grates and a weak person (woman, child, elderly) might be challenged to push them up to escape (AB hatch, AEF hatch)... I have designed lightweight replacements that work even better since they allow more light to enter and block rain (on rainy days, the even heavier hatch is often almost completely closed over these compartments  :o

Basically there are two fire states:  ONE--Boat is open and visitors aboard. We don't change our smoke detector batterys so they are virtually useless, but smoke would be seen rising from the hatches and help would be summoned.  We DO NOT HAVE a fire diagram and need to change that. 

TWO-- Boat is closed -- the worst fire situation because the boat's main induction is open and the fire would not go out due to lack of O2 but would burn until it ran out of fuel, and ours being the Martha Stewart boat, with ALLLL of the linens, bedding, towels, etc., it would be UGLY. And we might go a week without a clue in the WINTER (as in NOW)...

A monitoring system might be in order, but the skipper would have to be sold on the issue.
Fires have been an issue aboard the USS LEXINGTON (major fire) and the USS INTREPID (minor fires)...


Thanks! Now I won't sleepwell tonight...   :-[
Johnny Cash's third cousin, twice removed

Offline Brian Flynn

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Re: Shipboard Firefighting on Museum Submarines
« Reply #4 on: November 24, 2008, 10:06:30 AM »
Let me take these suggestions and make some updates.  I'll repost when I can.

Brian

Offline Lance Dean

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Re: Shipboard Firefighting on Museum Submarines
« Reply #5 on: January 27, 2009, 09:49:05 PM »
Hey Brian, get another draft ready yet?

Offline Brian Flynn

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Re: Shipboard Firefighting on Museum Submarines
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2009, 09:12:25 PM »
Fallen by the wayside.  However, I'm getting things pulled back together again, hopefully I will get that new draft done.  It may take a few of those round tuit things.

Brian

Offline Darrin

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Re: Shipboard Firefighting on Museum Submarines
« Reply #7 on: November 04, 2009, 09:37:44 PM »
Nearly a year later I wonder what has been done to help the submarine museum community out with what has been taught :knuppel2:   many hours were spent by a few to help all and I truly am wondering what has happened in regards to the saftey of our boats :-\