Guest wrote:The advance fire training at Toledo was excellent training. I went there twice during my career. It was far more advance than the training I had at Great Lakes training center in Wisconsin back in the 70’s. If procedures had been followed correctly, the fire on the St Clair would have been detected long before it involved the entire vessel. We successfully controlled and extinguished a fire on the Str Water A. Sterling containing it to one compartment which contain a diesel fuel tank for the unloading generators.
The Toledo training centre was quite good. The instructors were very thorough and took their profession seriously. This is based on my attendance in the late 1990s.
That said, there were few people on board the vessel at the time the fire started. Those who were on board were outside contractors, who have little to no training in fire fighting (especially shipboard firefighting). The fire lines aboard the St Clair were drained, empty, and not available. The contractors would have been limited to portable extinguishers, and that is assuming not only were they were the correct type, but also they were even properly trained in their use. Maybe the shoreside fire department connected via the International Shore Connection (assuming the ship had one)? There was no central fire monitoring system available, not that any personnel were aboard to respond anyway.
I have read the Shipkeeper mentioned in some replies here. Had this individual been aboard during or after the contractors finished their work, and the subsequent fire, I believe the smartest thing this person could have done is to evacuate the vessel. As a lone person, if a fire extinguisher cannot put out the fire, then you run. Fires are unpredictable and escalate very, very quickly. No situation is worth risking your life for, especially if other lives are not in peril.