Boating Industry Fire Safety
On March 31,
2008, at 4:52AM, a serious fire was reported aboard a 75' Lazzara at the Miami
Beach Marina. There were seven people sleeping aboard the boat.
Five barely made it out alive with cuts, burns and fractures. Two did
not escape and they were trapped in a stateroom below with only a
porthole, too small to exit.
They waved
and screamed from the porthole until they got someone's attention on the
dock. Miraculously, the nearby fire department, using a small boat, cut a
hole in the side of the Lazzara and pulled the two trapped people to
safety. A minute or two later, and the results would have been
different.
Although a
wonderful rescue, we should not have to go to such extremes in
order to escape a fire aboard a multi-million dollar boat in the
21st century. It should not come this close to death and injury
before the occupants can walk away safely when a fire occurs.
Photo (taken while the boat was being raised) of the plywood covered hole that was cut by Miami Beach Fire Department in order to save the trapped persons aboard the 75 Lazzara. Note the porthole - too small for egress.
Also
see: http://www.local10.com/news
The Miami Beach Fire Department has not come up with an official cause of the fire due to the condition of the vessel which sunk immediately following the rescue during fire fighting operations. There was a report that the occupants were smoking aboard the boat before they went to bed, and it can be assumed that careless smoking may have been the cause of the fire.
Fire Protection
The key components to any proper fire protection effort is Prevention, Detection, Egress and Suppression.
The obvious restricted egress in this vessel (and many other vessels) can create a life threatening problem for the occupants. We commonly find a stateroom or two in most vessels with only one way out.
But the even bigger question is this: Why didn't the occupants of the boat have the benefit of a working smoke alarm, like every other consumer in America is required to have? (RVs since 1982) All boats with sleeping quarters should be equipped with smoke alarms and most are not!
If the 75' Lazzara was equipped with working smoke alarms, the fire would have been discovered much sooner and handled safely either by the occupants or the local fire department. None of the devastating trauma, injury and property loss would have occurred. (The fire destroyed two additional multi-million dollar vessels.)
If the design and accommodation requirements don't allow for the standard two means of escape, there is even more cause to require working smoke alarms for the vessel. The NFPA 302 Watercraft standard requires smoke alarms in any vessel over 26 feet with accommodation spaces. The ABYC does not require smoke alarms on any size vessel.
The boating industry does not get good grades for detection and egress and we need to take a hard look at this.
Good common sense suggests to the people who regulate, design, manufacture, survey, sell, maintain and use boats, that smoke alarms are essential boating safety equipment and there is no excuse for not having them in a boat with sleeping quarters.
John McDevitt