N.Z. Stoker Controls Fire Aboard Monowai

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28906, 28 May 1959, Page 13

N.Z. Stoker Controls Fire Aboard Monowai

(Rec. 11 p.m.) SYDNEY, May 27. A New Zealand ship’s stoker worked calmly to control a dangerous fire which broke out* in the boiler room of the New Zealand liner Monowai in Sydney Harbour today. The stoker is “Paddy” Stephenson, of Dunedin. He worked methodically shutting off the fuel valvr as flames licked tanks holding more than 1600 tons of fuel oil. Other engine room hands ran for their lives as the fire threatened to touch off the oil tanks and blow up the ship. Officials of the Union Line, which owns the Monowai were unable to estimate the damage tonight. The ship was due to sail for New Zealand on Friday. Crew members said later that the fire broke out when oil floating in the bilge was ignited by sparks from a welding torch being used in the boiler room. Flames filled the boiler room and clouds of dark brown smoke poured out of the Monowai’s after funnel. Firemen found the boiler room ablaze. They sealed it off and extinguished the fire with foam. They were able to prevent the fire spreading to other parts of the ship. Heat blistered paint on the outside of the steel bulkheads. Mr Stephenson said the fire spread quickly. “The flames licked up the oil-covered r'nes. I shut off the fires under the one boiler that was working. “When the steam vent, the generators died down, and everything was in darkness,” he said. One of the ship’s electricians said: “I walked out past a welder to get a drink of water. When I came back he’d taken off—he was looking for an extinguisher. “In a ship like this, oil settles on the bilge. As the bilge rises and falls, the oil spreads over

plates, pipes and conduit and all manner of things. “Some of it is fuel oil, some lubricating oil. There’s all kinds of oil on the bilge. “In the room where the fire was, the bilge runs under three sets of boilers. There would be half to a quarter of an inch of oil floating in the bilge.” Tommy Bernell, aged 30, of Auckland, said: “I was on watch and saw the flames under the plates and I gave the alarm.

Crew members said between 20 and 30 men were working in the boiler room when the fire broke out. The only injuries were minor burns. Four fire brigades attended the fire.