Fire—the greatest fear

Press, 25 September 1987, Page 19

Fire—the greatest fear

The Great Antarctic Monster is not as well known as the Himalayan yeti or the Loch Ness monster, but it is much more dangerous. Once the monster takes hold, everything, including lives, can be lost Antarctic dwellers fear it much more than howling blizzards, yawning crevasses or whiteout The monster is fire.

It may seem strange that the coldest place on Earth would regard fire as such a threat, especially when the continent holds 72 per cent of the world’s fresh water supplies.

But Antarctica is also the driest place on Earth. Virtually no precipitation falls there, and that great store of fresh water is frozen.

Scott Base has a normal water supply of 160,000 litres. Sea water is brought up by electric pump, but as it goes through the membrane in the desalination process, 99 per cent of it is lost All going well, 0500 litres can be added to the

supply every day. Water will be rationed, as a fire safety measure, if the holding tanks drop below a third of their capacity. “Life takes priority over cleanliness,” says Garth Varcoe.

There are not many places to go for shelter once your home burns down in Antarctica. Friendly neighbours offering blankets and cups of tea are few and far between. New Zealanders at Scott Base are luckier than most if they get stranded In the snow in their pyjamas after a fire. The American base at McMurdo is only 3 kilometres away. But the nearest fire station is more than 3500 km away, in Invercargill.

Personnel on the New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme learn to be their own firefighters. The 11 members of the win-ter-over team receive special training, both at Tekapo and for a week afterwards. They will be the Scott Base fire crew for the 12 months they are in Antarctica.

An old house is boarded up and fires lit in the blocked-up chimneys. Garth Varcoe and Neil Price, of the New Zealand Fire Services take all trainees through the smoke-filled rooms, crawling on their stomachs.

Practice is done in the use of fire extinguishers and hoses. Rules on fire prevention must be strictly adhered to. There must be no smoking in bed. No clothing can be hung over or put on top of heaters. No electrical wiring can be done by anyone but the base electrician. Rubbish must not be allowed to build up inside, outside or underneath buildings. The fire chief and base engineer have special responsibilities to check fire exits, flues and exhaust outlets, and firefighting equipment. Fire drills are held at least once a month. Five members of the fire crew must be on Scott Base at all times, both winter and summer.

The training given to the fire crew is exhaustive — and exhausting. They use breathing

apparatus in a smoke chamber to experience darkness, smoke and heat.

Then they use it in minus 27 degrees C conditions with blast fans going in a vault in the freezing works, to experience cold and wind.

“Now they feel more confident that the breathing apparatus will look after them, in any circumstances,” says Neil Price. Neil and Garth seem to derive some pleasure from the sight of 11 grown men bolting from the room in the middle of their breakfast when the call of “Fire!” is made.

But, as they say, that reflects the reality of fire in Antarctica. It comes without warning and must be dealt with immediately. There have been only a few minor fires at Scott Base in its 30-year history. A cigarette thrown into a wastepaper basket by a visitor, a primus stove flare up, and a vehicle electrical fault causing sparks are the sort of incidents that have occurred.