Fire at Ipswich

[TomB]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-20669165#TWEET436049

Yet another incident.

[Clanky]

**** happens

[YoungMariner]

Once you've been at sea a few years then you'll have experienced at least one fire, if not more. Often a non-event, with well trained crews and a fast response, despite sending the adrenaline running.

[Hatchorder]

I have been at sea for 3 fires onboard ships. One was a scavenger fire that was dealt with in an hour without too much fuss. One was a scavenger fire that turned into an engine room fire that went right up the funnel and the upper reaches of the engine room, which took a few hours and a few scary moments to get under control but we did it ourselves. The final one was a cargo fire on a general cargo ship that we had to go down into the hold and the lower tween deck to put out. That was more exciting than scary because we were all freshly qualified firefighters who were totally unaware of how much real danger we were in! As Clanky and AM say - bound to happen at some point if you spend enough time at sea.

Whilst it is scary at sea it can be even more scary in port. The reason you have all your firefighting plans and stability plans to hand at the top of the gangway in port is in part because of incidents like the SS Pizarro back in the 20's. Fire in port, Liverpool's best turn up, pump in a few million gallons of water to the upper decks and the ship turns turtle in the dock! "Fire's out chief".... "Where's me F***ING ship" was the reply. We had to do a big study on it as part of my college course. Really interesting, but not a one off.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/ship-turns-turtle-1

Interestingly enough her replacement/namesake had a fire on board in the Caribbean in the late 60's that a Navy Ship put out. Not a lucky name for a ship. Anyone fancy a cruise on the Costa Pizarro?

I became a retained Firefighter after I left the MN because I enjoyed the firefighting so much, and that was far busier over the years (but a lot more gruesome.)