Transcript
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The speaker introduces himself, explains his work as a merchant mariner, and sets up the video’s focus on firefighting training aboard Coastal Transportation vessels.
Hey there.You're in the right place.This video is all about firefighting at sea.But before we jump back into that action, I want to take a moment to introduce myself.I'm an American merchant mariner, which is a civilian sailor that operates on commercial vessels in the US.Right now, I'm not sailing.I'm in Switzerland where I live.Living abroad and traveling abroad is a huge perk of being a mariner.But specifically, I want to talk to you about the company that I work for, the company that's doing this training, Coastal Transportation, located in Seattle, Washington.This is the work that we do.We carry cargo between Seattle and remote parts of Alaska.When an emergency happens, it's up to us to solve it.We train hard for these emergencies because out here you have to be ready for anything, including fires aboard the ship.
So let's go back to the training we were just looking at.In fact, let's go back before that and show you how we run the training program as a whole.There's nothing out there quite like it.
Captain Scott Wynkoop and Dan Liska explain how the in-house disaster simulator works and why Coastal uses realistic scenarios instead of standard drills. The chapter covers the simulator layout, crew roles, and the support team structure.
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This is Captain Scott Wynkoop, the guy in charge.
Uh my name is Scott Wynkoop.I work for Coastal Transportation as a captain.Uh Coastal delivers freight to remote parts of Alaska and I'm typically the captain of the Coastal Standard.I'm also the director of our in-house training group.Uh we train the rest of the members of our fleet in firefighting, medical emergencies, abandoning ship.Right now we're getting to run a firefighting scenario in our disaster simulator for the crew of the Coastal Nomad.Leave it in there for a few seconds.Test this is back and out of it.Pretty much all I would do to check to make sure there's oxygen.Um it takes a lot of effort um for the training group to set up for an exercise, but the realism makes it worthwhile.Uh we do all of our training in our own in-house disaster simulator.It's built to the scale of one of our boats and it contains all the same difficulties in it that we would experience on board one of our ships.
I'm Dan Liska.I'm a captain at Coastal Transportation.When I'm not at sea, I'm the manager of our training group.And we do firefighting differently here than at any other firefighting schools.
Uh we run scenarios instead of drills.We try to keep things as realistic as possible.Uh when we get into our simulator, it's as if you're on a boat at sea.Um fire breaks out and the captain and crew have to have to solve it.The trainers don't tell the crew how to handle the fire.Now the captain and the crew know nothing about what they're going to face.Uh they're on own as if they were at sea.They can even call the Coast Guard only it's our own staff they were talking to.
My position is 57° 18 minutes north 101 37° 28 minutes west.
Coast Guard United States Coast Guard Southwest Alaska understood you have eight persons on board you have firefighting capabilities.
All this prepares our mariners for firefighting as a crew in a way that other firefighting schools can't do.
Yeah, let's take a look at the simulator itself.It's big.It's massive.And it has a bunch of compartments with ladders and stairwells connecting them all.When you go inside it feels like a real ship.
The simulator has weather decks, a wheelhouse with radio communication to the outside world, a galley where the crew would normally assemble,a birthing area with cabins for the crew, an engine room usually manned by the chief engineer, and cargo holds.The simulator is big enough that moving around from one area to the next takes time.Wearing heavy turnout gear with an SCBA on your back and working in dense smoke doesn't make anything faster.Another thing that's different about CTI is the way they divide up the crew.On any ship it's normal to divide a ship's crew into hose teams who actually fight the fire.The captain stays in the wheelhouse and keeps contact with the Coast Guard.This is all normal.But in addition to that we have a support team made of the chief engineer, a deck hand, and a cook.Their job is to make sure the fire teams have everything they need to do their jobs, breathing air, medical aid, whatever is needed.
Often that means the chief engineer has to set up emergency diesel fire pumps because the ship has lost electrical power.
This section shows how trainees rotate through the hot zone, manage equipment, and practice with self-contained breathing apparatus. It emphasizes building real-world readiness until the response becomes second nature.
Once the team enters the hot zone, the support team times them and signals them to come back up in 10 minutes, which they must do no matter what.Once back, that's when the other host team takes over.
The trainees have overcome real world problems like hose management while going up and down stairs in the smoke and dark.
Equipment that we use during the training is the same equipment that we have on our vessels.That way the equipment and the crew get tested at the same time.If this is something that you do in your company, leave me a comment let me know.But I kind of doubt.
A lot of the training is on using self-contained breathing apparatus or SCBAs.The whole firefighting effort depends on this breathing gear.To use them safely in an emergency, you need annual practice, not just shipboard drills.You need to learn how the system works in actual conditions and importantly, learn your own limitations with them.This is what we preach and practice at CTI.Yeah, I know it looks intense and believe me, it is.I go through the same training every year.But it's meant to be intense because when these emergencies happen on the vessel, you don't want to think about it.You want it to be second nature.Our firefighting training is like a movie, except the trainees don't know the script and no one's going to yell cut.Because it's so real, you get sucked into this scenario and before long, it all becomes real to you.
And that's exactly the point.
The director and manager describe how they control the exercise from behind the scenes, including cameras, radios, and pyrotechnic fire setups. They also explain how each year’s scenario is designed to challenge the crew and teach safe door entry.
As the director, Uh job is to run the scenario behind the scenes.I can see just about every space inside of our simulator using closed caption cameras.
Okay.Let me know when you have
Um I'm in radio contact with the manager.The manager lets me know kind of the flow of what's happening so that I can be kind of one step ahead.Um to start the simulation I radio our pyrotechnic operator and he can start fires remotely.And we have a variety of effects.We can burn hay, we can burn pilots, we can burn propane.Uh in the past we've used a spark machine.Uh we burn with fires in the simulator uh ignited with propane.The simulator's water cooled so we don't burn down the entire structure.Getting everything set and dialed in for safety's a project and we have experienced people working behind the scenes.
All right, you're set.
As the manager I'm staying in radio contact with the director letting him know first hand with the trainees outside of the hot zone are doing.Meanwhile we both get info from the trainers following the firefighting teams down below watching out for their safety.
I can tell you as a trainee you don't see any of this behind the scenes stuff.Once you put the SCBA mask on it all becomes real to you.And the further it goes the more real it becomes.It actually feels like you're on a ship.Like you're in a true emergency.
Hold.
This training group comes up with a new scenario every year.And every year they figure out a new way to set this simulator or this boat on fire.And the captain and crew have no idea what's coming at them every year.This year's scenario starts with a simple trash can fire that then spreads to nearby debris in a cargo hold and becomes a much bigger deal.
The director will have the operators ignite a fire in a barrel in the room between the cargo holds.The crew doesn' know this, of course.When they smell smoke and find the trash can fire, we'll see if they just put it out with an extinguisher.And if they do, we'll reward them by just staging a simple cargo hold fire.We want to train them to put out small fires quickly before they get big.If they don't use an extinguisher at first, but instead jump the gun and suit up for a full-blown firefighting effort, we'll punish them by giving them fires in multiple cargo holds in different locations.Door entry is the most dangerous part of raid firefighting.The compartment on boats are sealed metal boxes.If a fire starts in one, it will be starved for oxygen until somebody opens the door to the compartment.
The sudden entry of oxygen causes the fire inside to flash into an explosion.That's why we train how to make door entries the safest way possible.
The final section focuses on the difficulty of reaching the fire, the limited air supply, and the need to retreat and regroup when necessary. The speaker closes by inviting comments, likes, and subscriptions, and teases the next episode.
Once a host team goes down below, I can't see them.That's why we have a trainer down there spotting them.
Getting to the fire is the hard part for the host teams.More strenuous than actually fighting the fire.It's exhausting.You only have a limited air supply.Then once you're there, you have to actually fight the fire.And what we teach our crew is once you attack the fire, expect them to fight back.And be ready for that attack.Be ready to retreat, regroup, and attack again.
Come on.Your firefighting training comes nowhere close to this.Comment below if you think otherwise.If you're a professional mariner, also let me know how your company does it.And if you've gotten a kick out of this video, like and subscribe.It supports us so we can create more content.
Hey, thanks for watching.In the next episode, I'll show you the training from the trainee's perspective.But for now, Santik and ciao.