HalcyonDaze
Contributor
Those descriptions remind me more of what is seen with drowning victims in cave diving - people do damnably odd things in a panic, like rip their gear off or try to jam themselves into tiny spaces. I'm blind as a mole without contact lenses or glasses, but I'm sure as hell not going to stop and pop lenses in my eyes in the dark and smoke with a fire cutting off my escape route. For that matter, if I can't fumble around and find my glasses in a few seconds I'm not bothering. Ditto for shoes - that's not going to help much if you're going in the water. Everything described sounds like what would happen in the case of grabbing/donning items in a panic without being able to evaluate the situation; as far as time taken I've known quite a few folks in the fishing industry up in the Aleutians who drill to throw on a full-scale Gumby suit in the dark and I wouldn't be surprised if they could manage it in under a minute. Snagging a jacket, shoes, or a cell phone/flashlight would take seconds.
At the end, the take-home lesson is that the fire casualty cut off the escape routes before an alarm was sounded. Had the vessel been constructed with an escape route directly to the deck, that could have been avoided. Had the vessel's electrical and/or charging systems been different, that could have been avoided. If a fire alarm had sounded earlier, that could have been avoided. If a roving watch had spotted the fire and sounded an alarm, that could have been avoided. In the subsequent RSA-I incident two months later, only the alternate escape route - which was actually blocked by a sleeping crewman - and the passengers smelling smoke in time prevented identical results. These are issues that will have to be addressed so this never happens again.
At the end, the take-home lesson is that the fire casualty cut off the escape routes before an alarm was sounded. Had the vessel been constructed with an escape route directly to the deck, that could have been avoided. Had the vessel's electrical and/or charging systems been different, that could have been avoided. If a fire alarm had sounded earlier, that could have been avoided. If a roving watch had spotted the fire and sounded an alarm, that could have been avoided. In the subsequent RSA-I incident two months later, only the alternate escape route - which was actually blocked by a sleeping crewman - and the passengers smelling smoke in time prevented identical results. These are issues that will have to be addressed so this never happens again.
