Safety training and professionalism paid off for Seafarers and officers aboard the tanker Kenai as they quickly extinguished a shipboard fire while the vessel was tied up at the Valdez (Alaska) Marine Terminal.No one was injured in the Jan. 22 incident, which began when a backup diesel generator ignited.
“The crew reacted phenomenally well,” said Captain Richard Holman, master of the Kenai. “You couldn’t ask for a better bunch of people to work with.”
Bosun Alvin Martin said the fire “was in a potentially bad spot, but everybody mustered on time, suited up and was ready. Everybody was right there. What impressed me was that we had guys who were volunteering to take care of it. It wasn’t like anyone had to say, ‘You go.’ People were really willing.”
Every indication is that the fire essentially was unavoidable and that no one was at fault.
SIU members sailing on the Alaska Tanker Company vessel at that time were Bosun Martin; ABs Woodrow Brown, Ramon Guimba, Joshua Kirk, Robert Odmark, Estella Synder and Edward Boyd; QMED/Pumpman Odilio Evora; 2nd Pumpman Orlando Guzman; Engine Utilities Romualdas Videika and Criseldo Espinosa; DEUs Emmanuel Bayani and Edward Tanaka; Steward/Baker Dorothy Odoms; Chief Cook Self Salvation; SA Nagi Saeed; and Unlicensed Apprentice Courtney Sacks.
Fourteen of those 17 Seafarers have completed at least one safety course at the SIU-affiliated Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education, based in Piney Point, Md. All of them took part in regular shipboard safety drills on the Kenai.
The bosun said the training and drills “definitely” played a big part in the mariners’ efficient response. “We do so many drills out there, we know what we can do and can’t do,” Martin stated. “In this case, we knew right away it was something we could handle. We were in touch with the bridge, and we had a (written) fire plan on board, which was a great assistance.
“For that final decision to use the CO2, we just wanted to make sure that when we did it, everything was safe and everything would work,” he added. “It was textbook—kind of like when you go to a fire fighting school and they light off a fire.”
The ship had just finished discharging its ballast water and hadn’t started cargo operations when a power failure provided the first indication of trouble. Holman noted that the fire quickly was identified and the alarm was sounded as smoke began coming out of an engine room vent on the starboard side.
The ship’s emergency response team was suited up and ready in about five minutes. A local fire fighting crew arrived but basically stayed on the perimeter and served as consultants.
Holman said the mariners quickly realized that the fire was “too overwhelming” to initially combat with portable equipment. They then sealed the 15-by-15-foot room where the fire was located and used the fixed CO2 system, followed by portable extinguishers.
“We attacked the fire in teams of two,” recalled the captain. “There was no apprehension on anyone’s part. They entered the space and extinguished the remaining fire, changed out their equipment and did a great job.”
The local firemen complimented the Kenai mariners afterward, noting their focus and proper handling of the equipment. “It’s good to hear that from an outside source,” said Holman.
Martin has sailed for 30 years and never had faced a shipboard fire. He said that his confidence in his fellow crew members was reflected in a calm feeling not only during the emergency, but afterward.
“If you’ve ever had a close call when you’re driving—you barely avoid being in an accident—you know that your adrenaline really starts pumping right after that, as you’re replaying it in your mind” Martin said. “I didn’t have that feeling at all (on the ship) because I knew from the beginning it was something we could handle.”
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