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From: Rick H Kennerly (no email)
Date: Wed Jul 23 2003 - 19:39:56 EDT
Thought I'd pass on the latest excitement here in our marina.
A few nights ago a live aboard boat burned. The couple were aboard and
emerged unharmed. However, their story is interesting.
The boat is a Morgan 38 center cockpit ketch. Around 2100 the couple, who
were awake and watching a bit of TV, smelled fire. A quick look around and
they found that something was ablaze on the port side of the boat, up inside
a cabinet. The owner thinks that the fire began near the 30 amp ac cord
plug, which is in the cockpit combing near where they saw the smoke.
When he and his wife ripped some cabinetry off to expose the fire, it
flashed over into the interior, roaring across the boat and up the open
companionway and cutting off their best escape. The husband emptied two dry
chemical fire extinguishers on the blaze while his wife went forward to open
the hatch over the forward berths. However, they had installed one of those
hatch mount AC units at that hatch and the unit's fabric skirt had been
secured to the deck around the hatch frame. The galley area was fully
engulfed and the wife had no knife to cut the skirt away. The fire
extinguishers had little or no effect on the blaze and a fuel tank became
soon became involved. There were only about 30 seconds into this fire and
they were trapped and being overcome by smoke.
Both the husband and wife are fairly short and the salon coach roof is about
6'4" off of the cabin sole. The husband boosted his wife up and out the
salon hatch, toxic smoke from burning fiberglass bellowing around her. Then
he jumped from the settee to the hatch where his wife and neighbors pulled
him out.
Everybody who was able began cutting boats loose and shoving them out into
the bay (fortunately, it's hurricane season and there weren't many boats
left in the marina). Before the fire department arrived the boat sank and
burning diesel spread across the top of the water, driven by a 15 kt breeze.
We think a through hull hose burned through in the engine compartment and
allowed the boat to sink. The propane tanks (2 ten gallon tanks) didn't
pop off because they went under with the stern before they got too hot.
The fire was so intense aft that the mizzen mast actually melted in two.
Two thoughts:
I've always been a bit of a worry wart when it comes to escape plans, even
on a small boat. There are a lot of boats, Westsails, Babas, Masons, BCCs,
Island Packets, that have only one forward hatch and where a club footed
staysail is also secured low and tight over that hatch, making escape
impossible. You see this all over your marina, I bet. Or there's an
inflatable turned upside down over the hatch. Before we got rid of the
club, I used to always tie it up in the rigging to port, just to ensure we
were never trapped like this.
Even in protected waters, an inflatable rescue platform or an inflated
dinghy on deck seems like a really good idea. While we don't know (may
never know) why this fire spread so quickly, the boat was completely
uninhabitable within about 30 seconds. Having someplace to go would have
been comforting if the boat had been underway.
Just food for thought. BTW the boat was uninsured and the couple got away
with only the clothes on their backs.
You can see some pix here:
http://www.mouseherder.com/xapic/fire/index.htm
Rick NH2F
Westsail 32 Xapic
Cabo San Juan, Puerto Rico
www.mouseherder.com/xapic/sleep.html
www.westsail.org
Sail like a Kiwi
Anchor like a Canadian
Live like a Texan
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