Another containership fire.

[Tony Wilding]

its happened again, mv hansa brandenburg abandoned and on fire off mauritius, crew all rescued and landed in mauritius,, 2 salvage companies contracted to try to save ship and cargo, smit salvage and five oceans.HANSA BRANDENBERG.jpgHANSA BRANDENBURG.jpgIts happening too regular now, some new rules of cargo inspection need putting in place, must be a nightmare to be in charge of one.

[Tony Wilding]

i can see insurance for Box Boats going through the roof.

[Tony Wilding]

both salvage companies managed to board hansa brandenburg and extinguish the fire. Making preparations for towage. Hope there luck holds.

[Rocky]

Do they still have the BOT sports days at sea surely a fire is going to be a lot harder to put out if left to spread than it is to get stuck in straight away every one here would have been grabbing hoses and heading out to save the ship or is it now to dangerous for the crews and sub contracted to shoresiders like everything else

[Kevin Mercer]

If the fire starts in a container which is buried under a stack, how do you get to "the seat of the fire" ? There could be anything in those boxes including a bomb knowing how clever these terrorists are.

Kevin

[Rocky]

If the fire starts in a container which is buried under a stack, how do you get to "the seat of the fire" ? There could be anything in those boxes including a bomb knowing how clever these terrorists are.

Kevin

Good point but if there is a bomb in a container it is pretty unlikely it will be in the one that's on fire even hosing the boxes on top water will still be running down the stack cooling the one that's on fire and surrounding boxes stopping the spread

As for flooding the bilge pumps should be able to cope with that

I still think i would be firing as much water as possible into the area the fire was in the boxes are steel and supposed to be watertight so all it would do is cool to prevent spread until contents of first box are burnt out

[Ivan Cloherty]

I still think i would be firing as much water as possible into the area the fire was in the boxes are steel and supposed to be watertight so all it would do is cool to prevent spread until contents of first box are burnt out

I'm with you on that one, having experienced fighting a shipboard fire, it's just as important to keep the adjacent areas cool as well as trying the seat of the fire, I'd have had as many hoses rigged that I could find and the pumps could cope with.

[robpage]

Noting what you say Ivan and having experience of a real fire on a ship , I regard a full pressured fire hose as being managed by five men at least , when you have pumped 10 bar into the things they have a mind of their own . I would want two fire fighting crews on the deck cooling both sides at least , so two fire parties , the mate supervising , a bridge watch , an engineer on the fire pumps and bilge pumps , I have started to run out of men . Looking at the ppictures tha Tony puts up of these things , I would really be ubnhappy fighting that without twenty five men , but know there are ex Fire Brigade men here so would love to hear what they think , I think to fight it with insufficient men adds to the danger .

[Ivan Cloherty]

, I think to fight it with insufficient men adds to the danger .

Rob, whilst understanding what you say, my natural instinct would still be to try what I could regardless of how many men at my disposal, and yes hoses do have a mind of their own, but as the cargo was not moving my instinct would be to lash the hose to the rails then get as many as I could going and do the same with them. I wouldn't be sitting around saying I haven't enough men! If I would have had to wait for enough men I know of one fire that I fought wouldn't have been put out. Also on other ship jobs some would never have got done at certain times if I would have had to wait until some of the lads sobered up. At sea we learned to cope with what was our disposal, doing nothing was not an option.

[robpage]

I agree totally Ivan , you do , or did what you can with what you had to hand , but in this modern world , I think these almost skeleton crews are not adequate to cover an emergency , and whichever authority allows the minimal crewing has there head firmly shove into a darkened space away from the sunshine . When you look at engine room manning and the use of shore gangs to fix problems , it makes me think that these ships carry academics not engineers with a practical ability . The reliance on planned and programmed maintenance programmes is fine when things are new and just run in , but After many years working in very modern factories Even the most up to date stuff fails , rarely , but never less the possibilities are there . I just do think these fires are a good example of the risks of minimal manning , save a few men's wages lose a ship .