Marina Fire Analysis

Marina Fires are some of the Most difficult time-consuming fires, I have worked in my career. The fact the watercraft are moored close together, are made with fiberglass, resin, vinyl , plastics, and contain a host of highly flammable liquids on board, then add a lake wind to the mix through open structures, and you have a recipe for a runaway train, once a fire is established, and there is little or no suppression available.

The fire analyst is going to need a lot of assistance, with manpower, equipment, and expertise, and possibly containment of lake environmental hazards depending on the degree of destruction, and if the vessels have sunk after being on fire.

The US Coast Guard, and US Army Corp of Engineers, along with some private agencies  usually get involved to protect the environmental impact of these incidents along with an endless list of private investigators. 

 I worked three such incidents (Marina Fires) in the mid 1990s, that ended up in Federal Civil Court.  We used Divers, a Crain on a barge, and a tugboat, to recover and reconstruct the boats back on shore to determine the Origin Cause and Fire Spread Responsibility.

This class highlights some of the obstacles facing the fire analyst and procedures, protocols that are implemented to better understand what lies ahead. In this module, we discuss safety, the basic resources needed for vessel recovery, the proper Listing of equipment in these locations. Wiring Standards of installations on Marinas, the failure mechanisms from improper installations or worn equipment, and data collection and analysis by individuals having areas of  expertise.