I just spent an interesting day, and not one word of this is made up...

The following is a first hand version of an incident that is true - it superceded everything on my schedule today, and you will likely not read an account of one of these quite similar to mine.

0630) The shop settled in for another workday, having learned the planned underway was delayed slightly. Liberty would expire saturday morning at 0600 with all hands expected to be aboard.

0800) Several evolutions were in the works - the biggest of which was cutting and grinding an old equipment mounting base out of a corner of the work center. A "HOT WORK" permit had been duly signed off, qualified hull techs were on the jopb and the area had been inspected earlier by the ships fire marshal for fire hazards in the vicinity of the work being done. "Barrier" material (which became plot material as you'll see) had been hung all around a six by eight foot square area where grinding was to be done so that sparks and metal dust would be contained in the crowded work center.

It is worthy of note that this "Barrier Material" appeared on a cursory inspection to be metal foil, though it was in fact a layer of foil laminated within an outer coating of plastic. Sheets of it had been hung as "Curtains" all around the work site...

0845?) I was just about to call up my schedule on my computer, situation normal. On the other side of the test station next to my desk I heard: "Oh (expletive left out)!!!"

Followed by an even louder: "OH (expletive left out)!!!" by a different voice. And then:

"DUDE! IT'S ON FIRE!!! Get out of there....."

I dumped what I was doing, and walked around the end of the aisle to see what was going on. By this point a chill was running down my spine because it did not sound like a joke by one of my at times playful co-workers.

In the area of the hotwork at the end of the next aisle a sheet of flames had leapt from floor to cieling...

The guys were good, and damn fast. They ripped down the burning barrier material and one tried stamping it out - NO GO!

Petty Officer "H" grabbed an 18 pound CO2 fire bottle off the bulkhead and knocked down the flames. At this point smoke was getting ugly in the shop. The fire reflashed briefly, and was swatted with CO2 again. First Class Petty Officer "G" (the LPO) called for everyone to get out of the shop, because the smoke from the material was really bad news. Burning plastic is carcinogenic...

All hands headed for the door, and someone called in the fire. I secured my computer and checked one more time to see if anyone was left in the shop, and what the area of the blaze was doing. One glance told me we were in big trouble, and instinct took over.

"(expletive left out)!!! It's REFLASHED!!!!"

The fire had jumped right back up! There were flames four feet up off the deck in the compartment for an area about eight feet square... I grabbed a fire bottle from next to the door and ran back in. The fire resisted CO2 extinguishment - perhaps 40% was knocked down with short bursts at the base of the flames as we are taught, but it stubbornly persisted in at least three hot areas around the perimeter- I later realised what the mechanism was.

The inner core of metal foil formed small cinders or clinkers of red-orange hot embers that served as a constant ignition source much like a glow plug. At the same time, they were near impossible to penetrate with CO2, and were giving off volatile vapors (fuel) from the plastic component of them.

I finally held down the trigger and got it out by CO2 flooding tactics - displacing the oxygen with carbon dioxide.

I watched a few seconds after the flames were gone, then dropped the bottle far enough back so that it would be handy in the event of reflash and bolted for the door. The whole corner of the shop was a solid white cloud at the time...

As I left, Petty Officer "H" was donning a self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) -commonly called a "SCOTT" pack, and about to go back in. I had bought him enough time to pack air....

He then went in and contained the blaze for long enough that the inport emergency fire team arrived on the scene. In the time it took him to get back in the space after I bailed - it had reflashed again.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning up the mess....

 

Sounds like you guys did a good job The fire Marshal should have done his job a little better though that stuff was obviously flamable material, the FM should have labled it a NO GO. Glad nobody got hurt

 

I wish I was there!

 

There are a lot of "Lessons Learned" to be had from this - the biggy is that preservation BARRIER MATERIAL is in no way shape or form anything that constitutes fire retardant material...

But some good things came out in it -

We DIDN'T QUIT! My guys functioned as a TEAM. If there is one thing in all of this I will treasure for life - it is the way they jumped right in and did what they HAD TO.

They thought - they didn't freeze. Thats good.

Petty Officer "H" seemlessly grabbed an SCBA and went back in after it - I was seeing the Inport Emergency Team arriving and assisted with setting up hoses and other gear.

The space was evacuated quickly, smoothly, and without panic.

When the hose team arrived on the scene, the fire was OUT!

It could easily have been a truckload worse, lemmee tell ya....

Nobody cried, nobody left it to someone else, WE DEALT WITH IT!

GOD, those guys make me proud....

Even though I don't "own" them anymore.

~Wolf

 

Good job of putting it out!

 

Great job on keeping your cool, that could have been a disaster. I am proud of you guys too.

 

Wow great job under pressure.

Chris

 

Good job shipmate. We once had aft decon, which was packed solid with trash, catch on fire. We didn't need anyone to call it in, you could smell it from bow to stern! Fortunately, the fire party got it under control quick enough to avoid a GQ.

The ship stank for weeks after that.

 

I still remember in the aftermath - once the C.O. and everybody had come through and looked at it - meeting eyes with my counterpart and shaking hands, saying:

"Good job, petty officer "H", congratulations petty officer "H", you're a (expletive left out)ing HERO petty officer "H" -

Let's not do this again..."

(We both agreed!)

 

Good job guys!