Topic: How to guard against fire on board a boat (Read 9 times)
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I’d also add a portable extinguisher to each cabin and a fire blanket for the galley.
If you need to use an extinguisher, aim it at the base of the fire and use it in short bursts. Always try to have an exit behind you so you can escape if it gets out of control.
Planning your exit is vital. On a small boat it’s pretty obvious but larger craft with multiple decks and cabins present a much bigger problem. Do you have escape hatches fitted? Do you know where they are? And can you actually fit through them? Older or larger guests may not be physically capable of using them.
Amazingly, despite being surrounded by water, most craft I go on either don’t have any buckets or have buckets but no lines attached, so you can’t easily haul up water to put out a fire. Lastly, if you have to abandon ship make sure you can access and launch the tenders/liferafts quickly. Consider launching them early as a precaution and keep them tethered alongside on the windward side (on the downwind side they risk being damaged by the flames or filled with smoke) until you know whether they are needed. You can always recover them if not.
Know where your extinguishers are kept and how to use them – these ones had quite different pull-pins. Buckets for collecting sea water are also a useful extra resource but they need a lanyard to reach the water easily.
In the event of a fire the fuel supply will need to be switched off, otherwise you are literally adding fuel to the fire. Then manually pull the engine room fire control.
Many engine rooms have automatic extinguishers like this one, which also cut the engines. The little switch allows you to restart the engines, once you have put out the fire.
The engine room extinguisher is auto and manual but the pressure gauge is placed where it’s hard to see, so I use my phone to check what it reads – in this case, it’s nicely in the green.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that I fit through this foredeck escape hatch, especially as there is no extinguisher in this cabin to aid my escape back through the boat.
If the fire envelops the boat and you can’t fight or extinguish it, how are you going to exit the craft? This boat has a liferaft and an easily launched tender.
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