Fire Contained on Irish ferries vessel

[pmtts]

At twenty four minutes past seven this evening (2/2/10), Falmouth Coastguard received a call from the crew of the ferry Oscar Wilde who reported that they had a fire in the engine room.

The ferry is operated by Irish Ferries and had been in Falmouth Docks for a refit.

It was reported that there were 113 persons on board the vessel at the time of the incident MCA was informed of a fire in the engine room while at anchor in Falmouth Bay. Two MIRG Teams of six (plus kit bags) were mobilised and airlifted to the vessel by Royal Navy Helicopter R193. Vessel suffered main fire pump failure and intermittent failure of emergency fire pumps. MIRG Teams undertook boundary cooling and monitored the temperature of the engine room. Fire was reported to be out at 2300 hrs and the teams airlifted back to Falmouth.


Falmouth Coastguard despatched the Coastguard tug Anglian Princess to the Oscar Wilde and requested the launch of the Falmouth and Lizard RNLI lifeboats to standby the vessel. Three tugs had also left Falmouth Docks to assist.

The MIRG fire fighting team was airlifted to the vessel by helicopter to assist the crew in the handling of this fire incident on board the vessel. The fire was in the engine room and has been suppressed by the fire systems onboard.

The vessel remained at anchor and was due to be towed back to Falmouth.

[RoyalGreenJacket]

sounds like a well co-ordinated reaction by the agencies involved and thankfully there are no reports of any casualties.

job well done.

[Goldie fish]

The crew had the fire under control using the ships own systems, I understand, however the emergency services stood by. Better to have and not need etc.

[Goldie fish]

[Stoker]

Good video, you can make out a man being lowered down by helicopter. The main generators must have failed as there are no lights to be seen except some of the lights on the external decks which are to assist embarkation ie getting to hell off her! These are fed from the Emergency generator which is positioned above the boat deck. The Emerg. Gen. also feeds the Emerg. Fire pump which is also putside the main machenary spaces. It seems they put the fire out using CO2, that is the last resort, one of the PVs had to do it coming home with a load of ammo. one time, all very serious stuff.

On a lighter note, on the Connaught,the section of the Main switchboard which was fed from the Emerg. board included power to the Bar beer lift, some one had stuck on a small note saying "good thinking".
Those electricians who built her in Verolme Cork Dockyard, got their priorities right.

[pmtts]

Good video, you can make out a man being lowered down by helicopter.

That would be a member of the Maritime Incident response Group. MIRG comprises 15 Fire and Rescue Service teams strategically located around the UK, with about 50 fire fighters in each team.

Each team has been specially trained to tackle fire in the marine environment and is equipped with the lighter, more compact equipment required when travelling by helicopter to the scene of an incident. The teams will not only fight fires but also deal with chemical hazards and free trapped personnel. Each Marine incident response team has been trained in helicopter familiarisation, sea survival, helicopter underwater escape and helicopter winching as well as additional training in ship construction, stability, communications and ship firefighting tactics.

[Marnealach]

Good video, you can make out a man being lowered down by helicopter. The main generators must have failed as there are no lights to be seen except some of the lights on the external decks which are to assist embarkation ie getting to hell off her! These are fed from the Emergency generator which is positioned above the boat deck. The Emerg. Gen. also feeds the Emerg. Fire pump which is also putside the main machenary spaces. It seems they put the fire out using CO2, that is the last resort, one of the PVs had to do it coming home with a load of ammo. one time, all very serious stuff.

On a lighter note, on the Connaught,the section of the Main switchboard which was fed from the Emerg. board included power to the Bar beer lift, some one had stuck on a small note saying "good thinking".
Those electricians who built her in Verolme Cork Dockyard, got their priorities right.

You are right there Stoker, that fire occured on the Aisling as she was returning from Barry in Wales with a load of ammo, most of it on the upper decks above the e/r. CO2 would be considered a last resort because when you use it you also lose all your machinery and cannot attempt a re-entry to the machinery space until you have had three significant drops in temperature.The smart approach is to attempt to fight the fire using conventional methods first if the fire is not extinguished at this stage the temperature should be reduced significantly to allow the CO2, BTM, or halon to succeed.

[pmtts]

if the fire is not extinguished at this stage the temperature should be reduced significantly to allow the CO2, BTM, or halon to succeed.

Considering Halon is illegal to use in most countries now, it's interesting to note that the military, air industry and even the channel tunnel can still use it!

[danno]

fires at sea

Am I correct in thinking that the Eithne put a fire party onto a blazing fv off Donegal some years ago and did the bizz to the credit of all involved?