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| Spent a fair bit of time in Stockholm doing the training! |
During the past months, I have been preparing for spending the month of August working as a firefighter on a hospital ship in Sierra Leone. The ship is called Global Mercy and will sail down from Spain, to stay in Freetown until next summer, when it's time to get the annual maintenance again.
In order to perform duties as a firefighter on board, I needed to get some certification courses done. It basically does not matter how long you have worked as a firefighter on land - the maritime certificates have to be checked off. It's a very good rule, so that same level of knowledge can be expected from everyone. Also, it's good for me to know what to expect from the crew. The following courses were completed during June and July, and here is a sum-up.
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| An extra book I found at the course premises - excellent theoretical base! |
All crew members need to do the Basic Safety training, and refresh it every 5 years. It's a very good course to do before you step onto a commercial ship. Not only does it cover the different laws, regulations and rules. It also walks through all the different kinds of distress situations that may happen on a ship. As a connection to reality, the course identifies big maritime catastrophies and explains why they happened.
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| Both theory and practice. |
There is a lot of theoretical material to read through. Most of it follows the manuals and tutorials that are published by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB). The actual tutorials are not included in the mandatory studies but I enjoyed reading them as an extra refresh for myself, both when it comes to fire dynamics and the emergency care.
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| Safety gear lined up, ready to go |
The practical exercises were resembling the actual firefighting training I've received professionally, however compiled into three days only. There was the smoke diving search techniques, the hot smoke diving exercises, the fire fighting theory and practice, and the first aid including CPR. Most of this was familiar to myself, as I both work with this as a firefighter and as an instructor, but it was great to reconnect it to maritime work on big ships.
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| Me (to the right) with another student (to the left). A maritime engine mechanic, a tall-ship sailor, and an intelligent, smart and ambitious young lady who enjoyed smoke diving. |
The large ships are normally made of metal, which conveys heat very well. This means that a fire may spread by convection, and make it hard to put out because of the heat impact. The spaces on board are often small and crammed, there may not be possibilities to ventilate, there are steep ladders, a lot of material that can ignite, and sometimes dangerous goods on board.
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| First responder guide for situations involving dangerous goods, including CBRN and high-yield explosives |
The course also included sea survival techniques. Putting on immersion suit, life vests, behaviour in water including different formation and swimming techniques, climbing and operating a life raft, and of course jumping into the water from 4 meters height. Last time I did a Sea Safety training, there was an auto belay installed, to make the jump easier - however it was much higher than 4 meters. This time, there was no auto belay. It was just a matter of jumping down and trying to keep the body straight.
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| Conserving warmth and energy, while monitoring your buddies and enhancing visibility from helicopter |
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| Search technique training. All smoke diver masks are blinded. Then the smoke divers enter the room and show what they've learned about searching. On land, most appropriately funded firefighting stations use heat cameras nowadays |
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| Classical hot smoke diving performed in Rosersberg |
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| Business as usual - smoke diving is normally drilled and performed on emergency calls by rescuers/firefighters |
The next course was Safety Awareness. Apparently, the ship will be sailing through dangerous waters. After the theoretical part about more laws and regulation, there was some very clear information on dealing with such things as terrorism, theft, stowaways, and ultimately pirates. Footage of real situations as well as written examples were used. It's a heartbreaking reminder of how widespread poverty is in the world. Countries torn by war, famine and other humanitarian crises will not have enough resources, and the gap between rich and poor will ultimately create situations where some people will break rules and laws, even risk their lives, to get hold of what they lack.
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| Preparing for the practical training: Crowd and Crisis Management |
So how to balance between helping people trying to handle, minimize or escape humanitarian crises - and at the same time not put the ship and its crew at risk? There is theory, and there is practice - I'm eager to see for myself what is done and what's not.
The next course was Crowd and Crisis Management. This one was also preceeded by theory, to get everyone on the same page. Once again, a lot was familiar to me - the psychology of a crisis, the human reaction, the possible aftermath and so on. I've done a crisis management course held by the Swedish Defence Organisations, and have refreshed the knowledge during my work as a rescuer and also in crisis and military zones. Yet once again, the maritime connection was interesting to explore.
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| Very life-like emergency care training doll |
The instructor was generous with giving real-life examples, and the students all told about their personal experiences, everything from near-miss situations to full-on grounding a ship full of passengers, getting a breach in the hull and needing to evacuate. The person telling this was the captain of the ship, very generous with detail.
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| When working with passengers, remember that they are not trained - and have probably neglected to look at the emergency plans and safety videos. They may misinterpret signs and graphics, and can be irrational and erratic. |
We also walked through a few recent maritime catastrophies and analyzed them. During the days of the course, there was an ongoing practical training including communication, stress management, decision making and finally evacuating a full ship (naturally, with several things getting out of hand to test the students).
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| Here, I was assigned the role of one of the crew of a ship preparing to evacuate. Not as straightforward as it seems, especially if people are scared, irrational or do not grasp the danger. |
The latest course, that I just completed four days ago, was Advanced Firefighting. This one is needed for those on board who will be involved in decision making concerning any fire emergency. This course, too, had a comprehensive theoretical part to be completed during several days prior to start. The physical course starts with a quiz to make sure everyone has read and understood the theory.
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| Back to Stockholm once again for a couple of days of firefighting - this time the advanced course where focus is on leading the organisation, handling risks, communicating, and assessing/reassessing decisions |
After the fire on board USS Forrestal, that killed the specialized firefighters and left the rest of the untrained and unaware crew to improvise, the approach has changed to training everyone serving onboard to be able to fight fires safety and efficiently. That's the objective of the "Basic Safety" course, which is essentially a firefighting course in a short format. There are, of course, designated smoke divers on board - but any of them may be missing, and other crew should be able to replace them more or less seamlessly. Now, smoke diving on board does not have the same regulation as on land, which means that the smoke divers may not have the same level of health and physical condition as regular firefighters. Nevertheless, they are trained - and know their surroundings very well. To their help, there are a lot off built-in appliances to help put out or at least suppress and cotrol the fire.
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| Training on board the old Bison barge. Here, with my future colleage who will be sailing as Second Officer on Global Mercy. So good to get some team building prior to sailing together. |
Apart from the smoke divers themselves, there are other positions needed. The smoke diver leader, who directs the smoke divers, also is responsible for their safety and for coordinating the operation when it comes to physical points of safe base, entry, strategy, risk assessment and information, and more. This role is covered in Advanced Firefighting. Essentially, a part of it is the Smoke Diver Lead course. The rest is what would be corresponding to a Firefighter Team Lead course (leading a group of 4 people) and an Incident Commander course (leading the whole organisation when required).
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| The helm as a symbol of leadership |
As this is specifically designed to be a maritime course, it was very interesting to take in the similarities and differences when it comes to my daily work. For instance, when there is a fire in a house, then normally you would want to evacuate everyone. But on a ship, evacuation is not straightforward, and sometimes can pose a danger in itself.
During terrain fires, there may or may not be access to water. Sometimes, water tank trucks need to supply the water by driving back and forth to a water source. One tank truck can be emptied quite fast depending on strategy and tactics. While at sea, there is unlimited access to water for putting out the fire, which is good news. But the tricky part is that if you use water to put out a fire on board, you will ultimately fill the boat with water... and that's not a good thing. The water inside of the ship's compartments may cause instability, the ship may be more affected by the waves and wind, can become unmaneuverable, the electrical systems on board may give up, and finally the whole ship risks sinking. So only small amounts of water can be used.
There may be other systems installed, like fixed gas extinguishers, but using them may mean killing those trapped in that particular space. The smoke may spread easily on board, as well as the heat - and it spreads upward faster than anywhere else. The problem is that those trying to escape may gather on deck. So how to delimit the areas affected by fire, based on the class of the bulkheads, number of vertical and horizontal cells, the ventilation systems, evacuation staircases etc? The ship's course relative to the wind can be used to lead away the deadly smoke, given that the ship's maneurability is intact - and that there are no hazards ahead.
Most fires start in the machine room or in the galley - and both places may contain flammable liquids or gases. Handling them is an art in itself. On land, there are set evacuation distances. But at sea, you will not be able to evacuate those 300 meters, that's far outside of the boat.
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| Selfie in between training and drills. A cruise ship in the background - very fitting. Imagine organizing firefighting on board, and evacuating all the passengers so it's safe for them and the crew |
So, a lot of considerations need to be made on board, in addition to the usual stuff. Also, communication and coordination will have to be done on multiple levels. There may be several firefighting groups, there are other groups responsible for evacuation, containing leaks, decontamination, security onboard, and so on - and there may be reinforcement coming in from land, so there is a lot of comm. Overall decisions, risk assessments, and strategies will have to be defined. And when there are no fire alarms, there should be continuous training and exercise for the fire groups and everyone else. All gear, alarm systems and extinguishing systems including water supply have to be checked and maintained. And someone will have to do that, which during August will be my responsibility.
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| Happy with the training |
So, the courses have been great - especially the last one, the Advanced Firefighting, which I will be happy to put into use during my regular work too. I've learned a few new firefighting-related phenomenons and a lot of maritime slang. I've also heard a lot of stories from seafarers, that was quite a learning experience. So alltogether, a great experience. Now, there will be internal compliance courses for the ship. And a bit of packing to do!
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| Taking off the training outfits - to change to the regular firefighting clothes. Will be on duty for a couple of weeks in two different stations. There will be more updates as the assignment starts! |