Fishermen Escape Ensenada Inferno!
http://www.thelog.com/news/newsview.asp?c=78694
Friday, October 17, 2003
Skipper Tells Harrowing Story
Jim Fisher, an avid fisherman and a Burbank, Calif.-based businessman whose company makes motion-picture equipment, had recently finished restoring
Sea Biscuit, his 1987 28-foot twin-engined Skipjack.
His $75,000 restoration work included putting in two new Volvo KAD32 diesel engines and outdrives and c-ckpit electronic upgrades.
?It looked better than when I originally bought it, and it was only two years old at the time,? Fisher told The Log.
Fisher?s deep-sea fishing dream turned into a nightmare in September when he stood on the jetty in Ensenada Harbor - he and his crew safe - watching
Sea Biscuit (shown above) go up in flames and smoke.
Fisher is 90 percent sure the cause of the fire was the alcohol stove he had on board. He suspects alcohol spilled out of the stove and ran behind the
galley cabinets, leaving a dangerous trail that would lead to disaster. The turning moment was when he blew out the flame on the stove, and in all
likelihood, the flame followed the trailing flammable liquid down behind the cabinets.
Here in his own words is his story. - Editor
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Disaster Awaits
I usually kept Sea Biscuit in Oxnard, but earlier in the summer I had it moved it to Baja Naval marina in Ensenada for the albacore fishing season. I
can?t say enough about how much help the people at Baja Naval provided before and after the fire. The marina people were great.
There were four of us going fishing that weekend - Jean-Paul Miller, my girlfriend?s 14-year-old son; Carl Grissom and James Reno, two of my
employees, and I.
It was early. We all got on the boat, got everything on board, and were getting ready to head out of the marina. We wanted some coffee, so during this
time, we started the alcohol stove to get water boiling so we could make some instant coffee - as we had a hundred times before.
We left the marina and motored over to the bait barge. We were only able to find it and navigate with the radar. It was a very foggy morning, and
visibility was about 100 feet. It was then that I noticed the alcohol fuel was leaking from the filler cap, had leaked on top of the stove, and was on
fire. We quickly blew out the flames and turned off the stove.
Smoked Out
Just after we left the barge and were about to go around the jetty, I saw smoke coming from the galley drawers.
I pulled out the drawers to see where flames were coming from - a mistake - but all I saw was smoke. This let in lots of air. I reached for the fire
extinguisher. I never fired the extinguisher because I didn?t see the flames. I knew that the extinguisher has to be shot at the base of the flames to
be effective.
Then, 30 seconds later, the cabin was so full of smoke that we all had to get out.
We abandoned the inside of the boat. From the outside, I reached inside the boat through the hatch and grabbed our life vests. Then I broke out all of
the windows to let the smoke clear, so we could fight the fire, but it was not enough.
The amount of smoke quickly grew, making the pilothouse impossible to enter.
I attempted to hail some help on channel 16. At this point, I could only feel for the radio, let alone change channels.
It was getting difficult to stay on board. There was little breeze, and the thick smoke hung heavy around us.
Nothing They Could Do
I decided that I had done all that I could and looked to see that we had quite a swim. So, from the outside of the boat, I steered under power and
aimed the boat towards the jetty.
While still inside Ensenada Harbor, we gently struck the jetty.
At that time, the smoke was too much for us to remain on board. We jumped off. I would say less than five minutes had elapsed since the discovery of
the fire.
We all climbed up on the rocks and got clear of the boat. A couple of minutes later, I got back on the transom of the boat and salvaged a few personal
items from the back of the boat. I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures of the fire.
Help did not arrive for 20 minutes. The Mexican authorities were just a half mile away, but no one could see us. The fog was just too thick.
Two or three other sportfishing boats leaving the bait barge came by. They asked if everyone was all right and if anyone was still on board. There
wasn?t anything they could do, so they went on their way.
Sea Biscuit Sinks
Eventually, someone must have called the port captain?s office because the local port tug showed up and put out the fire. The water cannons quickly
filled the remains of my boat and it sank.
By then, it had burned almost to the water line. We were watching the boat burn, then heard voices calling. The local authorities had walked out onto
the jetty to get us. They were very courteous and helpful. The port master took us back to Baja Naval.
The boat was a total loss.
I have done all right with the insurance, which was with BOAT U.S. They were very prompt, and I was lucky to have an agreed-valuation policy. Still,
with the amount of work that we all put into the boat, it cannot be replaced.
What?s really scary to me now that I think about it is this: If the fire had been 10 minutes later, we would have been a couple of miles out beyond
the harbor, in the fog, and no one would have seen us burning. There was fog for the remainder of the day, so we may never have been rescued. The
weekend before we had gone out 40 miles in the same conditions.
Lessons Learned
If I was foolish enough to have another alcohol stove, I would make sure it had a catch pan under it to keep it from spilling
Also, it has made me aware of the value of a Halon fire-extinguishing system. I would make sure to have that on my next boat. However, I understand
that they do not do much good if you leave the engines running, pulling in fresh air. I usually carry an Avon inflatable. This was about the only
thing that did not burn - because I had left it behind that day.
I have been boating for 20 years. I have another boat, a Bertram 28, that needs help, and I have been working on that. I may move up to a 40- or
50-foot boat, but the Skipjack was my pride and joy.
The incident has not turned me off to boating, but it has made me very aware of just how serious a boat fire can be.
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