My Firefighting Training Saved Me, My Family & Our Property
As I mentioned the other day, and have been making subsequent posts about, my family & I are currently on vacation at our place in Maine. It’s been a great trip so far, and has been relaxing - for the most part. Yesterday evening we had some rain, which started out as a very pleasant experience given our large wraparound porch to enjoy the cool breeze & sound of the rain. Last night’s rain quickly turned into a strong thunderstorm, which isn’t always so fun. As it turned out, this storm left us much worse than it found us.
As it got closer the lightning & thunder became much more intense. At one point, the lightning & thunder went off at the exact same moment (indicating they were directly above us) with an intensity I’ve never heard before. It frightened a couple of members of the family, but it just seemed like a lot of light & noise with no consequence. It wasn’t until a moment later when we went into the kitchen and my dad shouted “holy shit, the shed is on fire!” that we realized it was more.
Before I go any further, let me paint the full picture for you. Boston Island is about a mile from the closest point on the mainland, and we have no electricity or running water on the island. We haul drinking water, we use oil lamps & propane for light, heat, cooking, etc. and we collect rain water for showering, dishes, and other water needs that don’t require potable water. If we need electricity we have a small generator that we keep in the shed, but we rarely use it. The island is only accessible by boat; there are no ties to the shore whatsoever.
As I heard my dad shouting this a very interesting thing happened, something which hasn’t happened to me before in a real-life situation: I reacted from what felt like instinct, due mostly to the training I’ve received from the Coast Guard & Mass Maritime. We immediately went out the back door of the house & up the path to the shed, and as I got closer I started running down the checklist of things to do when dealing with a fire: assess the area for people who could be trapped/injured/otherwise affected, determine hazards in the surrounding area, identify an egress route, try to determine the class of fire. As I reached the shed door, keeping low to avoid the smoke coming out of the door, I quickly realized this was a fuel/paint fire (a Class B, for those familiar with basic firefighting). The first thing I made sure to do was tell my father & sister who came out as well NOT to put water on it, against their own instincts. I also told my father to stay outside the shed, well clear of the door as I ran back to grab the dry chemical fire extinguisher from the house (I realize that it was an oversight not to grab it on the way out the door, but a learning experience as a result).
I came back a few seconds later with the extinguisher. As I was going out the door of the house with it in my hand, I remember saying out loud what I needed to remember about this extinguisher - again, information & technique that I’ve drilled on many times in training & I now fully understand why - pull the pin, grab the hose, approach the opening to the shed staying low, get about 6 feet from the flame, aim at the base of the fire & discharge the extinguisher, sweeping across the base to ensure full coverage until the can is empty. Within a second or two of discharge all flames were gone, even the ones on shelves above the base of the fire which was on the floor of the shed.
My sister had gotten the other extinguisher from upstairs in the house which she’d handed to my dad. As he went to discharge it I made sure to instruct him to aim at the base & stay right outside the door of the shed (about 6 feet from the base of the fire). Once this can was empty we took a bucket of water my sister had filled & poured it judiciously on the base of the fire, making sure not to splatter any of the original fuel while cooling the area. We did this around the entire part of the shed near the fire. I went back into the house to get some wet towels & remember instructing my father to stand by as reflash watch, and my sister to fill every bucket she could find with water from the rain sistern.
For the next hour we continued applying water throughout the shed until everything was cold. We took turns monitoring the area & within 2 hours the only indication of the fire was the smell, some blackened wood & burnt paint cans, and the mess from fighting the fire. It was at this point that we realized a) how much unbelievably worse it could have been (the entire house is made of wood & connected to the shed by a wooden path, and the rest of the island is woods), and b) how lucky we were to have reacted so quickly & effectively.
We all took lessons away from this experience, but the biggest one for me was the value of effective training & continuous practice and drilling. I’ve grumbled about excessive fire drills in the past, but now I fully understand why we do them and how important they are in saving lives & property. Without the knowledge I’ve gained in the past few years, I may very likely have been writing a much more somber story today. I owe a lot to my instructors both at Mass Maritime & in the Coast Guard, the most important of which is the health & safety of myself and my family.
Beyond my technical training of basic firefighting, a more important honed skill kicked in: the ability to stay calm & think clearly. Given all of the circumstances out on this island (no utilities, no access to public fire departments, limited training among residents, limited firefighting equipment, etc.) it would have been very easy to slip into a state of panic, resulting in potentially catastrophic damage. However, my training and ability to maintain a level head, as well as those around me, enabled the rest of my knowledge to prevail & prevent further loss.
I’ve included some pictures of the shed & contents that I took this morning as we were cleaning up, including the damage inside the shed, the mess of dry chemical powder, water, paint & other substances, the burnt paint cans, and all of the other materials that were spared thanks to the dedication of teachers I’ve had, the knowledge I’ve gained, and the quick response & teamwork of my family.
