Captain Describes Fire

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31991, 19 May 1969, Page 1

Captain Describes Fire

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) AUCKLAND, May 18. An ordeal which began at 2 p.m. last Wednesday for 43 men on board the freighter World Fuji ended yesterday when the ship berthed at Wynyard Wharf.

The officers and men were able to relax fully for the first time since a fire swept through part of the engine room of the freighter, laden with. 12,500 tons of logs, some 60 miles east of Whangarei while on its way to Japan from Tauranga. The master of the World Fuji, Captain A. C. Dalziel, said the fire was first noticed by one of the engine room staff in the storeroom, which is part of the engine room.

He tried to put it out using a hand extinguisher but the fire grew worse and the main engines were shut down. “It was bad enough being on fire without careering all over the ocean with the engines out of control,” said Captain Dalziel.

The alarm was raised and the 43 men on board the ship all worked to put the fire out. Deckhands covered ventilators with canvas to stop the draught in the engine room and tried stopping up other openings while engineers began fighting the fire. The flames spread to the generator deck, above the storeroom, and the switchboard below, and dense smoke and fumes filled the whole engine room. The crew pumped salt water into the area, working from the upper decks of the engine room down. As they

hosed, the draught set up by the water falling forced the smoke out through gaps they had not managed to stop. They did not want to use too much water the captain said. As it was salt water it could seriously damage the engines if they were flooded, and if too much water was pumped in the ship could have sunk.

“There was no alternative though, it was a matter of being sunk either by fire or water, and we kept pumping." The heat buckled steel girders and bulkheads and also threatened a tank holding lubrication oil and some fuel tanks, which were in the immediate vicinity. The fire was put out six hours after it was first spotted.

He was extremely grateful to the H.m'N.Z.S. Invereil, which arrived at the scene

about 9 p.m., said Captain Dalziel.

Officers from the Invereil confirmed that the fire was definitely out. The next day, as the World Fuji had no power, the naval ship allowed two of the freighter’s cooks to use its ovens to cook meals during the day. Once the World Fuji was seaworthy it would sail for Japan to be docked and fully repaired, said Captain Dalziel. He hoped to back at sea by the end of the week. Members of the crew were still busy yesterday, cleaning up the mess left by the fire. Water-saturated debris inches thick lay on the decks and paint throughout the area where the fire had raged had either disappeared or was blistered and peeling. An inquiry into the fire will be held by the Marine Department tomorrow.