Smudger Snippets
Created | Updated Nov 10, 2005
The Fire Fighting Course
I have been sitting at this computer for the past half hour looking through all my previous snippets, and found it hard to believe that I have written so many over the past two years. Mind you I have really enjoyed writing them, and having the feedback form some of the readers has given me the courage to keep writing them.
Speaking of courage, its that very thing that was required to get me through this fire fighting course the Navy sent me on, way back in 71.
Being an engineer mechanic, or stoker which is the usual word for that type of work below decks in the Navy, we were all trained in the art of damage control and fire fighting below decks, as this would be part of our normal duties during action, if we ever found ourselves in that situation. Part of the training for this involved being put in a simulation module which was an exact copy of a part of any ship, where we were given a few minutes to find our way around the module and to note where all the equipment was, prior to them turning out the lights and letting all hell lose! What they would do is flood the compartment with water through holes of various sizes, while at the same time causing thunder flash explosions and tilting the whole module over to simulate the ship listing over.
Our job was to find our way around the module in the dark, with only the light from the fires they had started at the same time and plug the holes in the bulkheads with various wooden plugs that roughly fitted the holes, and then stop the water with any thing we could find that was suitable. When we had stemmed the flow of water we would then give our mates help with putting out the fires. This exercise although serious was never taken that way by us at the time, as when you are young and boisterous and full of energy you seem to be oblivious to the dangers involved. That part of the training was done by all stokers at that time, yet only a few were selected for other fire fighting duties in other parts of the ship.
One area where this was required was the flight deck; you see almost every frigate in the fleet at that time had a helicopter flight deck and a hanger for the helicopter to be stored when not in use. The helicopter itself had a vast range of duties to do, from searching for submarines and reporting their position back to the ship, to flying ashore to collect mail for the ship company. In fact the chopper (or paraffin budgie) as we called it, due to the smell of its exhaust as it wafted through the air vents of the ship filling the decks below with the smell of burnt paraffin, was a very important part of the ship.
Now sometimes the chopper had to take off and land in really bad weather, with the ship pitching and rolling in the heavy seas as well as high winds. All this made for a very dangerous situation, as if it crashed not only would it cause severe damage to the upper structure of the ship, but would also have serious consequences for the decks below if the fuel was to spill out and find its way down below.On one occasion that I can remember my crew mate who was on duty with me on the flight deck late one stromy night, actually fell off the deck, but he was lucky as the safety net that surrounded the flight deck, caught him and saved him from falling into the sea. With this in mind, we always looked out for each other as we were all part of the flight deck crew on hand every time the chopper took off and landed.
Part of this crew would be two stokers, specially trained in the art of cutting a path through the fire to get the pilot out first,if indeed the chopper was to crash upon landing, then to tackle the blaze in hand. This was done using a white powder which was blasted out under pressure from a special fire extinguisher worn of your back now in order to be able to do this we were issued with the proper training and fire fighting suit to do the job. Once the pilot was clear, we would then tackle the blaze with special foam that smothered the flames; this would take both men to operate.
The suit itself at that time was not the nice shiny ones you see today, no they were made of a rough material more like asbestos, and the boots that came right up to the knee, were made form really thick leather, which made walking an art in itself. The jacket of this suit was joined to the bottom half by means of a rope and toggle, which was very uncomfortable around the groin area, which made sudden movements painful to say ther least? The place where we had to do our training for this was in a place called Culdrose in Cornwall in the south of England. It was a two week course with a lot of practical hands on fire fighting along with a fair amount of theory exams to pass as well. We were trained to work as a two man team, where one would cut a path through the flames and keep them at bay, while the other would climb into the wreckage and cut the pilot free from his harness with a special knife that only cut the straps of his harness then carry him clear as the other man cleared a path back out the flames. Then we would both tackle the fire using the foam equipment advancing into it as we went.
This part could be made very dangerous, if your partner allowed the spike of the nozzle to come out of the large tin of foam, as this would cause pure water to be sprayed onto the fire. We found out, the hard way that this was not an ideal situation to be in, during a training exercise when my partner did that very same thing? In fact the flames grew faster and hotter within a matter of seconds, that we had to make a rather fast retreat on that one occasion.
It was not made very easy as the helmet of the suits we had only had a small slit in order to see where we were going, and if your partner wandered to one side of you, we had to slap the helmet round to that side in order to see him, as the helmet never used to turn along with your head. Along with this problem was the fact that you had to work very quickly as a team before the flames became too hot and you started to burn for the inside. To be able to be fully qualified we had to be capable of carrying out each others job, this meant that we had to enter the flames more often during our training.
I must admit I did find it exciting at the time, but believe me the novelty soon wore off when I found myself inside that thick heavy suit waiting for the chopper to return for a run when we were in the Persian Gulf in the sweltering heat.
The worst part of it all was the fact the officer in charge of the flight deck would have us suited up and waiting sometimes up to thirty minutes before the chopper even came into view. We used to have to attract his attention by waving our arms, just to ask permission to remove the helmet just to catch a breath of fresh air. Although I attended many flights during my time on board, I was never called upon to actually go into action, which to me was a great relief, it just goes to show the high standards our pilots were trained to.
