Every sailor's worst nightmare....

ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
....is a fire in a crowded marina. It happened here in our winter marina on Crete last night, a 65ft motor cruiser burst into flames. It took the fire brigade well over an hour to get it under control. There were lots of very worried boat owners here last night! Fortunately nobody was hurt but somebody's insurance company is not going to be happy this morning....
 
steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
Glad to hear no one was hurt! Always the main thing I guess, boats (no matter how expensive) can be replaced...
 
DeadEyeDuk

DeadEyeDuk

Superhero Level Poster
A fire in a crowded marina? Really?

I'm pretty sure it's this...

tumblr_nckzdoziVz1tk78wfo1_400.jpg
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Update this morning

The fire was most probably electrical or possibly bottled gas (we use that for cooking). Diesel is hard to ignite, though there was petrol stored aboard (for the dinghy outboard). She's owned by a local Greek. The marina is now closed with a boom across the entrance to prevent the spilled diesel from polluting the sea and there is a big diesel clean-up operation going on in the marina today.

The boat is now in the haul-out pit supported by the travel hoist so she can't sink. The damage inside is massive. She is built of marine ply and that's probably why she didn't sink. GRP would melt in those temps and a GRP boat generally burns down to the waterline very quickly and then sinks. This boat is now scrap though...

Thankfully nobody was hurt and the local fire brigades (we even had the emergency tender from Heraklion airport attend, that's 65km away) did a superb job of killing the fire before it could spread to other boats. Had they not been so fast and so effective we could have lost the whole marina.

And they say worse things happen at sea.......
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
nathanjrb said:
I'm glad you said that! At least they don't have to worry about running out! Also, surely you could just move your boats away?!
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Move the boats to where? The marina is full and there is nowhere inside to move a boat to, all spaces are occupied. The entrance is only about 40m wide and a mass exodus of boats would result in lots of banged up boats blocking the entrance.

The fact that a boat is in water is of little import where fire is concerned, they will burn down to the waterline very easily.

Fortunately this one was moored alongside on the outer quay, had it been moored stern-to on a pontoon as we are it would have spread very quickly in the southerly wind we had at the time.

Kidding aside, fire in a crowded marina really is a sailors worst nightmare. I'd rather face 6m seas and a force 8 gale, at least I can battle them with an excellent chance of surviving......
 
D

dogbot

Bright Spark
All's well that ends well though.

I guess everyone was ultra careful cooking their breakfast, or the local takeaway did good business.
 
nathanjrb

nathanjrb

Prolific Poster
I suppose it's tricky to move so many boats at once in an orderly fashion during an emergency. It's bad enough getting out of Tesco's car park haha. Glad everyone is safe!
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
nathanjrb said:
I suppose it's tricky to move so many boats at once in an orderly fashion during an emergency. It's bad enough getting out of Tesco's car park haha. Glad everyone is safe!
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Thanks for the good wishes, everyone is safe. :)

Getting out of Tesco's car park is exactly what it would be like if a car caught fire there. Imagine it, it's like an emergency aircraft evacuation.

Interestingly we (that is those long-term berth holders here) and the marina management have recently been working together on a revised fire planning and emergency system. Last night really brought it home to the management committee what a boat fire looks like. Now we'll see some quick progress!
 
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