Boat on fire!!!

Question: Does your Marina and Local Fire Department have a "Throwing Weight", Grappling Hook or Anchor with a Steel Cable" with them when they respond to a boat fire?

If not, insist they get them now!

I have seen a simple truth: When a boat is burning at a dock, or on the water, and you want to keep it from drifting, or keep it where it is (and let it burn), the boat must be "Controlled", otherwise it is "Out of Control", (and as luck would have it the wind Will be blowing)...

A burning boat at a dock "Will" drift away (still burning) once the lines burn through. Fire left uncontrolled will spread fast downwind and a drifting boat spreads the fire.

A grappling hook/anchor with a "Steel Cable" leader is a very very valuable tool to control the boats location. I have seen a futile effort to gain control by throwing an anchor with a "nylon" rope from a dingy, in an effort to pull the boat away from other boats, but you can guess the result (the rope burns through).

I will leave it to the list as to which type of Cable and/or Anchor or Grappling Hook would be the best to throw (and not to burn up) and how to fastened and when to let it go (if the boat sinks). The point is gain control and maintain control until the burning boat is either put out, or burns to, and then, through the waterline, and sinks.

We just had $2M+ of damage (boats and equipment) in our marina Valentine's night, because a small investment in safety was not thought of by the fire department.

Norm Miller
Quiet Company
Great Harbour GH47


Sent from my iPad. Please excuse typing errors...

Ouch

Just as important.... is plenty of foam...had to send the local volunteers back for foam last boat fire I towed away from the dock.

I poured water from a trash pump fire hose on the boat for 30 minutes barely keeping up with the fire o a tiny 18 footer....then lost another valuable 20 minutes till foam arrived and the foam had it out in just a few minutes.

Spottsville said:

...I will leave it to the list as to which type of Cable and/or Anchor or Grappling Hook would be the best to throw...

Click to expand...

Oh, now that's asking for trouble.

Seriously, it's always sad to hear about a marina fire. And I think you've done everyone a service to get us thinking about how we'd deal with keeping a burning boat from drifting, or for that matter, how we'd tow it somewhere safe.

I don't think I'm really prepared to do that on short notice. I'm thinking maybe I should put a length of chain on the dinghy anchor and keep it somewhere handy.

Capt Tom
The dingy anchor with a light chain leader would certainly be better that an all nylon line. I have a great place in my lazerette for a small diameter cable and a 10lbs foldable dingy anchor.

When a glass boat start burning, it takes of very fast. A grappling hook won't do you any good, as the flames/heat will peal the skin of your face within 50 or more feet. You need foam, lots and lots of foam.

There must be a way to inject the foam inline with a trash pump, it's only a type of detergent. I will look into it as I have a fire pump. Interesting...

Eductor

What you need is an inline eductor .....the movement of water through it causes a vacuum on its suction inlet and you can "inject" foam into the output stream.....

I hope you managed to escape without any damage, Norm.

Ron and Katie are really nice folks, too bad for them.