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ribbon for WTC memorial
"A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner."
We've been very busy.
Here's some of our latest work.......
New seminar "Handling Small Fireboats at Fires and Emergencies".
MFI is training tug boat crews in LNG operations Click here to read more.
MFI training for Ventura County, CA FD Click here to read more.
MFI has consulted on the design for the worlds largest Fireboat.
Jersey City, NJ FD puts their new Fireboat and training to the test.
The Marine Firefighting Institute provides lectures, seminars, and consulting to meet the needs of your organization. We are available to work with Land Based Firefighters (professional or volunteer), with mariners and marina operators. Our presentations can be delivered at your training facility, marina, or we can create "Vessel Specific" training and realistic fire/emergency scenarios on the vessels of your fleet.
If you are a Fire Department, you don't even have to have a commercial port in your district to need this information. If you are only near a body of water that commercial ships and ferries use, you may be called in the event of an engine room fire or explosion.
What
about a fire on a small pleasure craft or a marina? Small boat and marina
fires can happen in the winter as well as in the summer! Our "Small
Boat and Marina Fires" presentation looks at some problems
encountered at a Ten Million dollar marina fire. If you have fishing boats
in your district you will need our new "Commercial
Fishing Boat Fire" mini-seminar and our, "Tow
Boats and Barges" seminar if you are on an inland river or
waterway. Click on color title to go there now.
Fighting fires is what you do.....
However, the Land based firefighter will have to overcome the familiar attitude of, "A fire's a fire. I've been putting them out for years and a ship fire is no different." The other extreme of, "You're not getting me on one of those things", is equally unacceptable.
The Marine environment is different than what you are used to. Whether it's a small boat fire in a marina or an oceangoing oil tanker, it will take some new training, changes of your structural firefighting tactics, and some changes in attitudes. This entire program of seminars is important if not crucial.
If you're a mariner, this subject should be even MORE important to you. In most cases the Land Based firefighter can just walk off the vessel if a fire is not controlled. The mariner, at sea, does not have that option. If the fire is not controlled then you will have to abandon ship. Usually not near land and possibly in bad weather. Are your crews ready to put that fire out?
In regards to legal repercussions for land based firefighters...
Chapter 15-1.2 of NFPA standard # 1405 dealing with volunteer, career, as well as mutual aid fire departments who have been defendants in law suits involving losses at ship fires, states,"An understanding of the dangers inherent in marine fire fighting should include an understanding of the consequences of the failure to provide a standard of training, planning, response, and action equivalent to that which a department provides on the land-based portions of its response area."
Quote
from US Fire Administration report entitled
Fireboats Then and Now "A
central principle in the fire and rescue service has been that firefighters
and rescue personnel do as they practice when called to the scene of an
emergency. Like land-based firefighting, shipboard and marine fire emergencies
require unique skills to be mitigated effectively. These skills
must be taught, evaluated, and refreshed regularly
to ensure quality performance and firefighter safety. Dependence
on traditional land-based firefighting skills which have often
been mastered by individuals selected or promoted to serve in marine units
may be inefficient or dangerous in the non land-based
environment." For
the mariner there are legal questions also. When the land based firefighters
come aboard who is in charge? What can they do? What should you
do? Who is in charge of your crew and
who is in charge of your vessel?
The Marine Firefighting Institute will tailor the time and content to match your requirements. We are available for Seminars and Consulting. Choose from our more than twenty hours of multimedia presentations on Shipboard Firefighting, Fires and Drills (including our newest, "Small Boat and Marina Fires"), our new "Commercial Fishing Boat Fire" mini-seminar or any of our Ship Familiarizations.
See
our latest seminar dealing with fires and emergencies aboard"Tow
Boats and Barges" on our inland rivers and waterways. (Click
on blue titles to go there now!)
Presentations are available from a three hour mini-seminar up to a three day Shipboard Firefighting informational program. Or we can tailor one specifically designed for your area or vessels. Contact the Marine Firefighting Institute for all your Marine Firefighting seminar and consulting needs. Ongoing and refresher seminars are also available.
If you would like to place a link to us on your website, please copy the above banner graphic and past it to your website with the link addressed to www.marinefirefighting.com
MFI is proud to have played a small part in the hurricane Katrina recovery
To see where our seminars have been conducted in the past just click on The Old Professor
No money for marine firefighting training? Federal grants through the Department of Homeland Security have been given out to Fire Department throughout the US for several years. If you haven't even submitted a request then you haven't done all you can to provide training to your Firefighters. Click on the banner below to obtain information about the grant program and help to submit a winning grant proposal.
"You gotta be in it to win it!)
Some photos on this page complements of Pyrocool Foam Products.
For information about these products please E-mail us at...
Contact
us at MarineFires@aol.com
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