incident report

Two days after getting our ass kicked offshore in a storm, we have an engine room fire. I'm not kidding. I write the following incident report and submit it to my company. It's copied verbatim...

At 14:00 we left SP89 en route to SP55, arriving at about 14:20. Alex had done an engine round during the trip and reported everything in order. Switching to the stern controls at 55, I noticed smoke around the STBD blowers. It wasn't a great deal but enough to cause concern. Alex went to investigate via the deck hatch and came out waving his arms. I pulled forward until we were downwind of the platform and shut down the engines and blowers. Alex was already inside yelling "fire" and waking the others. Alex and I then went on deck to close the blower vents. When Joseph arrived, Alex and I went below, inspected the engine room for smoke and heat and found it tolerable. We acquired the #8 and #9 extinguishers from the machinery space, hyper-ventilated briefly (skin-diving method), took a deep breath and entered the engine room. There was a good deal of smoke and a fairly small fire, maybe a foot or two of flame atop the #3. We delivered one blast of dry-chem and retreated to the machinery space, but smoke had entered when we opened the hatch, and we were forced into the galley. Joseph and Greg confirmed all blower vents were shut, although this was difficult and required a crowbar as several covers have been dented by lifts.

We made our second attack from the galley in the same manner with Joseph and Greg working the door to keep smoke out of the cabin. I believe the fire was extinguished after the second blast, although it did re-flash once, and a third extinguishing became necessary. Both dry-chems were emptied. We re-checked multiple times before resuming ventilation and eventually re-starting the engines. Subsequent inspection revealed a cracked injector tube on the #5 cylinder. That engine has been vibrating excessively for some time.

Alex and I were barely able to attack the fire from the galley and get back without taking a breath. Alex and I both inhaled some smoke and probably some dry chemical, but I don't believe it was a serious amount. I experienced a little tightness of breath last night but appear to be fine. Alex say's he's ok. An emergency air source would benefit greatly a future crew in this predicament. I know an SCBA would be over-kill for a crewboat, but I've seen small, emergency "escape" breathing units that contain just a few minutes of air. Perhaps two such units per boat would not be prohibitively expensive. If the fire or smoke had been much worse on Saturday, we would not have been able to fight it without the fixed system.