Seahaven: 'I experienced what a real ship fire would be like at sea'

It was an intense situation to be thrown into but is one that every seafarer must do. A fire alarm was blaring and the smell of oil seeped through my visor as we slowly moved as a team carrying a fire hose to get the blaze under control.

It was a heat I had never experienced and I could instantly feel myself dripping with sweat.

This chaos sounds like the start of some sort of action comedy film where a journalist desperately tries to put out a huge fire. I was actually down at Newhaven Harbour undertaking rigorous fire safety training at Seahaven Maritime Academy.

It was an intense experience fighting real fire in a smoky dark room (Image: The Argus)

The centre trains the world’s seafarers. Whether you are a dancer on a cruise ship or an engineer on a tanker, when that alarm sounds you must all be ready to stop an emergency from becoming a disaster.

“There is no fire brigade to save you at sea,” said fire training instructor Henry Prout as we sat in the classroom learning about what the day would entail.

Arriving at Newhaven Port on Thursday, I was confronted by a large set of shipping containers where trainees are thrown in and assessed. That sounds daunting but they are given days of training in the classroom and practical drills to prepare them for real emergencies.

I was drafted in for this exciting part, the maritime fire fighting training course which all seafarers must complete.

Seahaven Maritime Academy trains seafarers from around the world (Image: The Argus)

I met a lovely group of eleven people including a plumber from Lancing who fancied a career change to become a ship’s engineer and the first Canadian woman to sail around the world.

We learnt how to set up our firefighter’s breathing apparatus which contains 6.8 litres of compressed air to allow you to breathe in harsh environments for up to 45 minutes.

The first drill was a blindfolded rescue effort where we went as teams of four to find a missing life-sized dummy that was hidden away. It was all about communication and working together to evacuate the casualty.

We were already fairly familiar with the layout of the ship at this point. It had two rooms upstairs, an engine room, kitchen, bedroom and control room.

Our instructors were Henry, who is an engineering officer on a super yacht, Justin Attwood, a retired firefighter who served in East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service for 30 years and Mark Osborne, also a retired firefighter with a wealth of experience.

From left, instructors Henry Prout, Mark Osborne and Justin Attwood (Image: The Argus)

We were then tasked with entering a smoky pitch-black room to do the same rescue operation but with all our gear on. It is an intimidating experience doing this as you scour the room going around the edge and using your feet to sweep looking for a body to rescue.

We had a lunch break after this and I got the chance to sit down and speak to some of the trainees.

“Last year I went on an expedition to the Antarctic and I decided I wanted to get into expedition tour guiding in Antarctica,” said Judith Lee, 36, from Australia, who currently works as a professional tour guide.

“I want to be the person who takes people from the big boats onto a smaller boat and shows them around the glaciers and icebergs.

“They’re really big on the theory here but also the practical so you get to try things out.”

The course attracts people from all over the world but also people closer to home.

Up on the top deck with some of the trainees (Image: The Argus)

Max Griffiths, 25, from Lancing, decided he wanted to put his career as a plumber on hold and try a “new experience”.

He said: “I did precision engineering at college and I want to try something new and get into the open world.

“There is a lot of training I need to do to get where I want to be. I want to be an engineer on a ship. I might have to start as a deckhand at first.

“It would allow me to go around the world and meet new people.”

Mother-of-three Melodie Schaffer, 55, flew over to the UK from Toronto in Canada because the training and flights are still cheaper than in her home country. Melodie said she is the first Canadian woman to race around the world in a sailing boat.

She said: “I have sailed all my life. I want to work on the expedition boats down in Ushuaia in Argentina going down to the Antarctic this winter.

“The course has been brilliant, the instructors have been excellent.”

During one of the training exercises (Image: The Argus)

The final bit of training was the much-anticipated fire scenario.

I was going to originally just watch from inside the containers but the instructors were happy to let me join a team after watching me train during the morning.

In fact, one of them said I was a “natural” and should join the fire service. That is a compliment I will always remember.

Anyway, we were sent in as a team of four with a huge hose reel under our arms. We spray into a doorway and suddenly we are in and shrouded in darkness.

We follow along the wall and all have individual jobs in our team. The front person is in charge of the hose while the three behind ensure it doesn’t snag on anything.

In my fire gear with breathing apparatus and mask (Image: The Argus)

We feed the hose through a doorway and down the stairs where we encounter the first huge fire. The heat is immense and we have to ensure all of us are in position and low to the floor before we put the fire out.

We douse the fire at the top to keep it under control. Once it is out we are again shrouded in darkness. We go through a door and encounter another huge fire in the bedroom area.

It is the same protocol. Control the fire, get low to the floor and ensure your whole team is with you.

Once we put that out it becomes an evacuation mission. We have to stick with each other in the pitch black while also feeding the hose back through the ship.

We had to deal with two intense fire inside the shipping containers (Image: The Argus)

Eventually we make it out in one piece. Ten minutes felt like hours. But we worked well as a team and the satisfaction of doing the training is amazing.

You can feel the heat emanating off your fire helmet and you are dripping in sweat.

It was an amazing feeling to be in that situation with complete strangers and working as a team.

At sea, it doesn’t matter what job you have, everyone must know what to do in an emergency situation. Seahaven Maritime Academy's fire training ensures that every crew member, in theory, can help in that situation.