Felbermayr's "Horst Felix" heavy goods vessel on fire-extinguishing duty Slider

Felbermayr's "Horst Felix" heavy goods vessel on fire-extinguishing duty

 

April 21, 2016 | Markus Lackner

In mid-March, a tanker caught fire on the Danube, close to Enns. However, the diligent actions of Felbermayr employees prevented this from becoming a much more serious incident. This was made possible by using an excavator shovel as a fire extinguisher.

"We were busy working on a passenger pontoon near Mauthausen," explains Ulrich Feirer, Technical Manager of Hydraulic Engineering at Felbermayr. As the captain noticed the blue lights of the fire brigade and police downriver, the thick plume of smoke from the tanker also came into view for the skipper of the Felbermayr ship, "Horst Felix".

Fire-fighting with a dredger

While the fire brigade were still occupied with preparing to extinguish the fire, the captain reacted by steering the ship backwards to those in charge of the emergency response, and offered his help. The fire service commander boarded the "Horst Felix" within seconds and they approached the stricken vessel. "At this point, flames were already rising from the engine room," says Feirer as he describes those dramatic moments. The ship had 340,000 litres of fuel on board, so urgent action was needed in order to prevent a much bigger environmental catastrophe. Dark smoke was rising as the "Horst Felix" approached the ship. The machinist on the excavator, plunged the shovel deep into the Danube and, in one motion, scooped up eight cubic metres of water from the river, swivelled to the other side, and let the water shower down over the cabin in a deluge. This extinguished the fire to a great extent and prevented the flames from spreading to the fuel. For safety reasons, the excavator operator repeated this procedure several more times until the fire service commander reported to his team that the fire had been extinguished. All three members of the ship's crew were rescued and escaped injury.

Fire caused by technical defect

The stricken vessel was subsequently tethered to the "Horst Felix" on the portside. With the vessel secured in this way, the emergency services were able to carry out an initial on-site inspection on the still-smoking ship. "Following initial investigations, the cause of the fire was assumed to be a technical defect," says Feirer.

Finally, Austria's Supreme Shipping Authority instructed that the ship, on which the fire had now been extinguished and which was now secure, be transferred around 15 kilometres to the tanker port upriver in Linz. In the opinion of the emergency services, without the spontaneous rescue efforts of the Felbermayr crew, it could not be ruled out that even greater damage – with environmental implications – would have occurred. However, Feirer and his colleagues from hydraulic engineering are looking upon it very pragmatically: "According to the Wasserstraßen-Verkehrsordnung (Waterways Traffic Regulations), it is our legal obligation to provide assistance." Be that as it may, the quick-wittedness and talent for improvisation demonstrated by the "dredger's team of firemen" in using the excavator shovel most definitely contributed to the effective extinguishing of the fire.

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