You Know What Doesn't Go Well with Boats? Fire!

[perchance]

I have heated with wood for many years and have experienced two chimney fires and they are quite scary when they run away.

[vintageray]

Creosote buildup can be prevented by starting your fire and letting it roar with the dampers open for a few minutes before shutting them to regulate heat. Also I've heard that tossing an aluminum can into the fire once in a while helps.

[ConradG]

Burning wood produces creosote (unless at temps higher than can be achieved in metal stoves). Hardwoods less than softwoods, but burning wood requires inspecting and cleaning the stove pipe. If buildup is light you can try and burn it out by having a roaring fire now and again but it's not the best idea for the stove or the boat. Insulated pipe helps quite a bit but I have never seen it on a boat. In one of the many houses I heated with wood I installed a ss pipe inside a too large flue of a chiminey to inmprove draft. In that case a chimeny fire didn't worry me so I just dragged the brush down it once a year. Still checked and cleaned the connecting pipe once a month, and that's burning hardwood but alot of it. At my current house I burn almost all pine because I have a sawmill down the road that is happy to dump his slabs in my yard, cut to length. I have a good display of chimney fire shooting into the night sky about once a month. It's an outdoor boiler so no worries. I plan on installing a solid fuel heater in the aft cabin of the boat. Using a heavy wall steel or ss pipe (not stove pipe) that can take the burnout and an appropreate through deck connection sounds like it will be worth it. My boat is 1/4 inch aluminum so scraping back the foam and a noncombustible trim collar should do with a heavy walled aluminum pipe for the fitting but bronze deck fittings that encorperated a well that is filled with water when using the stove were common on combustible boats of past.



Stove Accessories

[David M]

I would not trust ANY old fire extinguisher that has not been serviced in years. What I mean by servicing is it being taken apart by a person licensed to do this.

It's not just the weight of an extinguisher that determines whether or not it will work when you need it.

[boasun]

Originally Posted by David M

I would not trust ANY old fire extinguisher that has not been serviced in years. What I mean by servicing is it being taken apart by a person licensed to do this.

It's not just the weight of an extinguisher that determines whether or not it will work when you need it.

We had an Apartment house fire in this town and none of the fire extinguishers worked... CHECK YOUR FIRE EXTINGUISHERS!!

Have fought three fires at sea. The ship's crew has to do this, fore there are no fire depts coming over the horizon to put it out for you. Thus many of us professional mariners have had Basic or/and Advance fire training. one galley fire, one engine room fire and a spontainious combustion fire in the living quarters, due to oily pair of pants that fell behind a locker. I didn't count the electrical problems because we secured the power to that area and eliminated it.
So know your fire extinguishers. Take training on them. Carry more than what is required for your vessel. Because once you used it you need to replace it and far at sea there is no place where you can run out and buy another one.
Know your electrical power boards and which breakers/fuses go where.
Have sniffer alarms mounted low in your galley and any area where propane gas/ gasoline fumes can pool. Ventilate, ventilate and ventilate if you have Gas engines & propane stoves.
Keep the boat clean. Oily rags (engine oil, paint thinners or vegetable oil) stowed in an air tight metal container.
Keep the boat clean. Dust will allow fire to spread, Oily surfaces will allow fire to spread.
In other words; Be a Neat Freak.

[hellosailor]

David-
"I would not trust ANY old fire extinguisher that has not been serviced in years. What I mean by servicing is it being taken apart by a person licensed to do this."
Bear in mind that I specifically said that for CO2 EXTINGUISHERS. A CO2 bottle is just that, a high pressure bottle filled with gas. The valve is just a dump valve, unlike gate valves there is nothing to break down, jam, or fuse.
I'll stand by what I said in the context that I said it. FOR CO2 BOTTLES if the bottle has full weight, the laws of physics say it has full charge. And unlike powder, which can clog or lose the tiuny pressure charge, unlike foam, where chemicals may go bad or slowly react with neuter themselves, a CO2 bottle is "forever" as long as the bottle maintains pressure.
And, unlike all the "chemical" extinguishers, the valve on a CO2 bottle does not need servicing after discharge, because there is no chemical residue that may be in it to clog or degrade it.

Taking it to a licensed professional, who is basically a plumber, so he can perfrom $50 worth of maintenance every year, is an indulgence for the rich--unless your fire codes require it. There are a lot of shysters in the "pressurized gas" business, both in SCUBA shops and fire extinguishers service companies.

If you understand the mechanics of the bottle...there's no trust issue. IN CONTEXT.

[Boat]

My Uncle had a boat and we were out deep sea fishing on it. Somehow it lit on fire and we were forced to jump overboard because the fire was to big. We drifted for a couple hours before an independent cruise ship picked us up. I must say, the rest of the vacation was nice