All day on Saturday, October 22nd, Portland Fire & Rescue, along with fire departments from Vancouver, Astoria, Longview, Kelso, and Clatskanie, participated in a joint training for firefighters involved in fighting shipboard fires.

Vancouver Fire Department's Foam Transfer Pump

This specialized type of shipboard training, held at Cascade General in North Portland, provided regional firefighters' the opportunity to set up, use, and move equipment on a shipboard fire incident in a controlled environment. 

Firefighters practice using a hull system that pulls equipment on and off a dock.

Overseen by the Maritime Fire & Safety Association or MFSA, participants were divided into four groups.  Individual stations focus on the following: communications set up, air monitoring, patient packaging, foam tender operations, equipment and hose set up, and use of bulk CO2 suppression systems.

Firefighters demonstrate the use of a CO2 system

Activities practiced during this type of specialty training has been utilized in fires that would have otherwise been fatal to ship crew members. Shipboard fires and incidents can require any and all of the training that a land-based fire or incident would have.

Firefighters from different agencies practice extrication techniques

Overlook/Swan Island Fire Station 24, a specialty station and the only station in Portland that is trained for land-based marine firefighting, participated in the training along with NW Industrial Fire Station 6.

Firefighters climb onto a ship from PF&R's Fireboat Campbell using a Jacob's Ladder

Photos by Dick Harris, Portland Fire & Rescue.

  Portland Fire & Rescue