"USS Forrestal disaster" Topic

Often thought back on what went wrong here, despite the courage shown to tackle what the deck crews faced.

YouTube link

It is another Pearl Harbour story, prepare for the unexpected. A systems failure.

Training is everything. Here, do not spray water across foam fire suppressant. By here, I also mean the UK centre (sorry center) of the petrochemical refining industry. My wife was taught that and cannot believe what I showed her. Surprisingly poor film quality, even for the day and much reconstruction.

But some cold courage shown here in real time

Thanks!

Armand

Wow! Had heard of 'a fire'… but that footage is incredible.
Bravery and sad losses.

You have to be careful with many fires! In 90s at work, there were very good instructional vids on fire fighting with extinguishers… what to do and what NOT to do! But policy changed to 'just get out'… and they stopped showing them!

In home… probably 'best' things to have around, are Fire Blankets or Sand Buckets… maybe CO2 for overhead/electrical fittings…but safest to get out and get the Pro's in.

Some 'fire fighting' can just make things VERY much worse.

Maybe some professional Firefighter could create a 'Thread' of advice on TMP, 'Fires'…somewhere? Just a thought.

When I was in boot camp ('77) and later when I was on the JFK ('80-83) we were shown that video regularly to make sure we understood the ramifications of screwing up around ordnance.

We had a disaster in London a few years ago in a cladded high rise tower block. The Fire Service instruction was to stay put, as a mass evacuation would lead to accidents. So many of them did………incredible instruction.

I think an expert detailed view on fire suppression would be fascinating, but evacuate seems the best initial advice.

We do keep a small extinguisher in the kitchen but
also 3 boxes of salt. Very handy for grease fires,
as we discovered 5-6 years ago (the salt, that is)

In High School I was in NJROTC. On drill days, when the weather was bad we watched films. This was one of them. When it was over the classroom was dead silent. I joined the Navy and in Boot Camp I watched the film again.

I ended up on the Coral Sea CV43. One day my buddy and I were in line for lunch. The line ran out onto the hanger deck. The first of several fire alarms went off about three minutes apart.

I turned to my friend and said were about to go to GQ. No sooner that I got the words out of my mouth, General Quarters! General Quarters! This is no drill! So much for lunch.

When we got back we were told there was a fire in the paint locker in the forward section of the ship. The fire was spreading to the hangar deck where there was the usual flammable and explosive items. About a couple of hours later the Captain came over the 1MC and said the fire was put out and that we were heading back for repairs.

Turns out some sailor was smoking near the paint locker with the door open. Not very smart. We had guys on board that was on the Oriskany CV34 which had a more serious fire.

link

YouTube link

"The Fire Service instruction was to stay put, as a mass evacuation would lead to accidents. So many of them did………incredible instruction."

That is because high rise buildings are designed to compartmentalise fires so they don't spread. Now of course if the developer decides to cover the entire building in combustible material because it is cheap, that doesn't work so well.

I had to lead an evacuation from the upper floors of a burning building and it wasn't a very pleasant experience, although in the event Noone actually fell down the stairs or got trampled.

That Oriskany story is as horrific as the Forrestal deck fires, as here it is all internal and folk trapped in compartments. Not the exploding ordnance of armed planes in the open, but largely a Magnesium fuelled fire (hard t think of a worse material to have burning below decks)

You can imagine what those guys felt like when the fire broke out on the Coral Sea. One guy kept saying "I've seen this movie before and it doesn't end well."

(smile)

Armand