Fire, smoke, darkness aboard Canadian submarine

"After days of darkness and sadness aboard HMCS Chicoutimi, the crew and captain of the submarine are back on dry land. On Monday, they recounted for the first time the devastating fire that some thought they would never survive.

It was last Tuesday that a fire left Chicoutimi crippled in the North Atlantic Ocean between Ireland and Scotland. The maiden voyage from Britain to Halifax had just begun, but instead of celebration, there was devastation...."

CTV.ca

They were able to put out the fire, but endured a lot of smoke problems. One submariner died from smoke inhalation. The fire was in an electrical panel and they lost power. I have no idea if their emergency lighting was functioning.

Were I a submariner, I'd always carry a Gerber/CMG Infinity, or at least an Arc AAA around my neck.

Google news on HMCS Chicoutimi fire

Would they have a requirement to make all lights intrinsically safe?

Re: Fire, smoke, darkness aboard Canadian submarin

I'm sure they would have regs on batteries/cells, but I think AA alkalines would pass muster. Lithiums, particularly since they're sensitive to water, would likely not be approved. I'm sure each mariner is permitted a certain amount of personal gear; an Arc AAA or CMG Infinity would not be a problem IMHO.

Re: Fire, smoke, darkness aboard Canadian submarin

There was an article today in the Montreal Gazette that wrote about them using some "high powered" flashlight and was only able to see 15cm in front of them due to the smoke.......

My guess would be if you had an Arc AAA or CMG, it wouldn't do much as it won't cut through smoke or anything...rather get a wall of light that would blind you instead.

I do wonder what they use though, Pelicans probably as those seem to be the more popular "industrial" flashlights....

Re: Fire, smoke, darkness aboard Canadian submarin

a friend of mine was in the Australian navy - aboard ship he was issued a small 2 aa light that could change from green to white light - and a surefire 8ax for situations like the one described

Re: Fire, smoke, darkness aboard Canadian submarin

[ QUOTE ]
Echo63 said:
a friend of mine was in the Australian navy - aboard ship he was issued a small 2 aa light that could change from green to white light - and a surefire 8ax for situations like the one described

[/ QUOTE ]

Why green light?

-Mike

Re: Fire, smoke, darkness aboard Canadian submarin

white light to read gauges and stuff - green for doing paperwork out where you could be seen - apparently the human eye is least sensitive to this colour (i dont know this is what i was told)

Re: Fire, smoke, darkness aboard Canadian submarin

I thought we were more sensitive to green? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

Re: Fire, smoke, darkness aboard Canadian submarin

I am pretty sure we are more sensitive to green color. That's why the night gogles uses green. It hurts the eyes a little but it allows the eyes to make out shapes that are not as obvious in other colors.

Re: Fire, smoke, darkness aboard Canadian submarin

The Austrailian Navy uses green because it just looks cooler than red lights /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif



The whole red/green thing has been discussed ad nauseum...look a few months back.

Re: Fire, smoke, darkness aboard Canadian submarin

[ QUOTE ]
Heck said:
There was an article today in the Montreal Gazette that wrote about them using some "high powered" flashlight and was only able to see 15cm in front of them due to the smoke.......

My guess would be if you had an Arc AAA or CMG, it wouldn't do much as it won't cut through smoke or anything...rather get a wall of light that would blind you instead.

I do wonder what they use though, Pelicans probably as those seem to be the more popular "industrial" flashlights....

[/ QUOTE ]

Last Saturday we had a friendly competitive drill at work. We stuck a smoke generator in as 10x15 ft room tossed in a bunch of kids blocks and put on SCBA to go find them. Smoke to the ground, could only see my hand when placed on my mask, many guys just closed their eyes and crawled on ground feeling for those blocks. Only found six of nine, started out with only 1500lbs of air and after a few minutes low air alarm went off.

Smoke inside is nothing like what you see in movies, it's like swimming in ink. Scary enough when you can walk away, terrifying when your in a sardine can under water.

GregR

P.S. I knew it wouldn't be worth much but my E2e penetrated about 8-10 inches lying on the ground.

Re: Fire, smoke, darkness aboard Canadian submarin

After the fire is put out and the smoke's under control is when you'd really like a light with the power being off.