#16 A Hot Time



Navy Story #16

A Hot Time

During my tour of duty on the USS Pensacola (LSD-38), I became one of the ship's Landing Safety Officers (LSO). I think I may have previously showed you this picture, but just in case I didn't, here is a picture that a shipmate took of me while I was LSO one day:


The LSO, by the way, is in charge of the operations on the helicopter deck during helicopter operations. The LSO needs to understand at least a minimum amount of information and concepts about how helicopters work, how to respond to emergencies, etc. So I was sent to an LSO school at the Navy base in Norfolk in order to prepare for being an LSO. I think the class was a whole week. We learned some really interesting things about how helicopters fly, what pilots will do in certain types of situations and emergencies, what kind of information they need, etc. Anyway, one afternoon during that school, the class went over to the Navy's fire-fighting school in another part at the Navy base, and we learned how to put out a fire on a helicopter deck. That afternoon's class included our actually putting out a fire in a helicopter mockup in a round enclosure filled with burning oil.

One interesting thing about a fire is that its heat can be shielded or dissipated by a strong, fine mist of water. On a ship, including on a helicopter deck, the way the firefighters can get close enough to a fire to do any good in putting it out, is to have someone standing behind them holding a sort of wand over their shoulder, which puts out a strong fine spray that shields the firefighters from the heat. It's an amazing thing. So if you look closely at pictures of sailors fighting a fire, you will see two hoses being used: one for the fire and one for the firefighters' shielding mist.

That particular afternoon at the class, I was the lead firefighter, meaning that I was first on the main hose, with several other men behind me, including the other hose handler with the wand over my shoulder. We got right up to the enclosure that had the fire in it, and I was literally face to face with a very hot, large oil fire. We were so close that I could see the oil vaporizing into flame. But then the hose that was supplying the mist got a crimp in it, and the guys back there didn't notice it. (Their main job on that hose was to make sure the flow of water to that mister didn't get interrupted.) Anyway, I noticed that the fire was feeling hot. It's not supposed to feel hot, believe it or not. The mist keeps things cool up there, if all is going well. But when I noticed that my face was really getting hot, and I couldn't stand the heat any more, I yelled to the instructor that something was wrong. He immediately called us back from the fire, and it's a good thing he did. We were just moments away from being seriously burned by that radiant heat, apparently, because the mist kept decreasing. Wow.

The guys on the mister hose got a full bore of anger from the instructor that day. But then we went back and tried again, and we were able to actually wade into the enclosure and put out the fire.

The main thing that I remember about that day was how hot fire can be when you're literally face to face with it! And I remember how grateful I was to the Lord, that I got out of that situation with only a minor radiant burn to my face, sort of like a sunburn. That was quite an afternoon!