What’s the future for California dive boats?

[caydiver]

Or if it is not a type A fire getting fried or spreading a flammable liquid? It is just not that simple.

 

[Akimbo]

Or if it is not a type A fire getting fried or spreading a flammable liquid? It is just not that simple.

It is an oversimplification that water can't be used on cooking oil fires. Throwing a bucket of water on a cooking fire is not wise but a fire hose works fine. The density of water and volume matters. Fire sprinklers are commonly near residential cooktops.

 

[lexvil]

I approached several fishing charter boat captains out of Bodega Bay to try and convince them to try diving charters since at that time they had clamped down on sport fishing regulations and the sport fishing charters were all worried they’d be out if a job. The problem we found was that liability for a diving vessel was too great for the number of divable days in a year on average, and the math just didn’t work out.
As you know, there is some terrific and dramatic diving in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties but conditions change so rapidly that there is no way to book trips around that.

That sounds about right, that and NorCal divers are so damn cheap!

 

[broncobowsher]

Water in a cooking oil is a problem because the water will go under the oil, flash to steam (burning oil is way hotter than the boiling point of water). The steam now lifts the burning oil out of the pot, spraying it across everything. Misted fuel burns real good. Take that same flaming pot of burning oil, drop it off the side of the boat into a body of water. The drop is the dangerous part but once it hits the water it is so cold the fire will go out. Now all you have is an oil slick and a bunch of hungry people who are going to miss there meal.

 

[Bob DBF]

That sounds about right, that and NorCal divers are so damn cheap!

You have to have money to avoid being cheap.

The only way to be 100% safe on a dive boat is to never set foot on a dive boat

Or any boat.


Bob

 

[Akimbo]

Water in a cooking oil is a problem because the water will go under the oil, flash to steam (burning oil is way hotter than the boiling point of water). The steam now lifts the burning oil out of the pot, spraying it across everything. Misted fuel burns real good. Take that same flaming pot of burning oil, drop it off the side of the boat into a body of water. The drop is the dangerous part but once it hits the water it is so cold the fire will go out. Now all you have is an oil slick and a bunch of hungry people who are going to miss there meal.

Agreed and an important reminder. A high volume water mist works because it reduces the temperature on the surface of an oil fire below the vapor and flash points. Not enough water and/or the wrong spray pattern (even worse, a stream) can turn bad into tragic. Every kitchen should have an ABC class fire extinguisher close by.

 

[Wookie]

Agreed and an important reminder. A high volume water mist works because it reduces the temperature on the surface of an oil fire below the vapor and flash points. Not enough water and/or the wrong spray pattern (even worse, a stream) can turn bad into tragic. Every kitchen should have an ABC class fire extinguisher close by.

We have class d extinguishers in our Navy Galleys, as deep fat fryer fires do create their own oxygen when they get going.

 

[The Ruttmeister]

We have class d extinguishers in our Navy Galleys, as deep fat fryer fires do create their own oxygen when they get going.

I would be rather surprised if that was the case. As Class D extinguishers are for burning metals. Typically Class K are provided specifically for galleys/oil fire risks. I'm also curious about the chemistry that magically produces oxygen from burning cooking oil?

 

[broncobowsher]

We have class d extinguishers in our Navy Galleys, as deep fat fryer fires do create their own oxygen when they get going.

Please show me ANY documentation that burning kitchen oil makes it's own oxygen.

 

[Wookie]

Please show me ANY documentation that burning kitchen oil makes it's own oxygen.

So as I google deep fat fryer fires, I see definitions have changed since my last shipboard firefighting class, due next in 2021. I’ve never heard of a class k fire before today. And we have deep fat fryers. So I’ll be studying up a bit.

But my very rusty memory of my first advanced shipboard firefighting course at Treasure Island in 1984 was that the definition of a class d fire was one that liberates oxygen as it burns, meaning metals and (in my memory) deep fat fryers. They were all lumped into class d because you couldn’t extinguish them by cooling or smothering, you have to break the chemical reaction with (back then) purple k.

Obviously technology and terminology and fading memories have moved on without me.

Apologies.