Courtesy Photo | Under the supervision of members of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Diligence's Damage...... read more read more
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ST. JOHN'S, Antigua and Barbuda -- The damage control training team from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Diligence is a group made up of senior engineers that ensure the readiness of the ship’s crew. These experts held a firefighting and flooding control demonstration, March 9, as part of Exercise Tradewinds 2011.
When a ship is out at sea, the crew has no one to rely on in an emergency except themselves. That is the fundamental principle of damage control, the actions taken by crewmembers in the event of fire, flooding or any other situation that can cause injury or even death.
Fire hoses stretched alongside the cutter on the pier, each capable of sending 125 gallons of water out of the nozzle. Coast Guardsmen from Barbados and the Antigua and Barbuda Defense Force looked on as crewmembers from the Diligence in bathing suits and sandals placed a wooden pallet, a 55-gallon drum and a large fender with about 20 feet of line attached to each side in front of them.
When Diligence crewmembers asked who wanted to participate in some simulated firefighting, everyone’s hand shot into the air and some heated arguing began about who would take what position on the fire team.
Shipboard firefighting teams are broken down into four standard positions. The nozzleman is in charge of directing the stream of water and changing the pattern of the water’s flow. He takes his direction from the on-scene-leader, who crouches with his forearm pressed into the nozzleman’s back and a fire finder in his hand. They work together to keep the heat from the flames away from the team and the water on target.
Behind the on-scene-leader is the hoseman. He helps the nozzleman control the length of charged hose and can take control of the nozzle if fatigue sets in. Controlling the flow of water through the hose is the plugman. Standing at the point where the hose meets the valve, he feeds hose out to the team that battles the blaze.
After the Diligence’s visitors decided who would assume each role, they donned heavy, waterproof boots. Members of the DCTT explained that for this scenario, they would simulate entering a smoke-filled compartment and looking for the fire. With the nozzleman and hoseman wearing glasses covered in tape to simulate smoke and with the noise of the ship beside them, they would follow the hose and take on the responsibility of putting out the fire and saving the ship.
The first group navigated the way down the pier, with the on-scene-leader shouting commands and direction to his blind team members. After reaching the nozzle and conducting an agent test, (a short burst of water that lets the team know they have enough water pressure) they opened the nozzle to a wide-V pattern, which dissipates heat, allowing the on-scene-leader to locate the heat source with a fire finder.
The Diligence crewmembers on the pier rolled the drum toward the team, and they used the pressure of the water to repel each advance of the simulated fire.
“Controlling that hose was very hard,” said Lead Seaman Titre Addy, of the Antigua and Barbuda Defense Force Coast Guard. “It got really heavy and not being able to see anything made it almost impossible.”
When the DCTT members felt that the fire team had extinguished the fire, they rotated in new crewmembers from the Diligence that hadn’t had much experience with firefighting. Wearing the same glasses and working their way down the hose, the two fire teams switched places, while maintaining control of the hose and nozzle.
“Holding onto that nozzle and keeping the water going the right direction was almost impossible,” said Seaman Ben Lassen, from the Diligence. “Not only couldn’t I see anything, but I have a sunburn on my back and even though I know the hoseman keeps his hand there for both of our balance, it was really painful.”
Using the narrow-V setting on the nozzle, each group rotated through the different fire team positions. They knocked down the palette, rolled the 55-gallon drum and the on-scene-leaders practiced giving commands by chasing the fender dragged by diligence crewmembers across the pier.
“This helps give us confidence for when we are out at sea,” said Ordinary Seaman Dana best, of the Barbados Coast Guard. “Even though it was hard, we worked together and got the job done.”
Tradewinds is a joint-combined, interagency exercise and will involve U.S. personnel from the Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Army, Navy, Air Force, National Guard, Joint-interagency Task Force-South, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation along with forces from: Antigua-Barbuda (host nation), Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Colombia, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
| Date Taken: | 03.09.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.10.2011 12:42 |
| Story ID: | 66790 |
| Location: | ST. JOHN'S, AG |
| Web Views: | 293 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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