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To: Coleus

The US Navy Firefughting Schools have been using film of the Forrestal fire for decades, to show how not to fight a major conflagration like that.


28 posted on 08/26/2007 5:02:09 PM PDT by Bean Counter (Stout Hearts...)
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To: Bean Counter
The US Navy Firefughting Schools have been using film of the Forrestal fire for decades, to show how not to fight a major conflagration like that.

It had it's lessons that's for sure. The men on that ship were hero's though. One good thing came from the three tragedies {carrier fires in that era} was the development of the Hi-Cap system. They put them on the flight deck and hanger deck. HI-Caps when activate automatically layed down AFFF Aqueous Film Forming Foam. The later version of it mid 1970's era I think was an improvement also.

The AFFF helped cut down on re-flash. IIRC from the film the main mistake on Forestall involved mis-communication about the foam. They also put a Fire Truck on carriers and the Crash and Salvage crews got fire suits. The only draw back on Hi-Caps was the manual refill. 5 gallon buckets took a while to fill the tank back up and a lot of manpower to get them to the station.

Somebody told me a while back the Navy now uses a version of Scott Air packs. A huge improvement too IMO. The old Chemical OBA's had a bad tendency to konk out and you had to really regulate your breathing. Not an easy task when you run the length of the ship and up several decks then strap one on. The OBA's cannisters were dangerous to dispose of also. One drop of contaminated water and BOOM!

I never knew many who were on Fire Department though who didn't like the job. The Navy changed to a full time onboard Fire Departments on carriers in 1980 or 81. Before that mainly the Snipes from R-Divison handled it at sea and in the yards they set up a temporary fire department on the ship from all departments. I did over 9 months T.A.D. to it.

45 posted on 08/27/2007 2:54:07 AM PDT by cva66snipe (Proud Partisan Constitution Supporting Conservative to which I make no apologies for nor back down)
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