Explosion, Rapid Fire Spread Dooms Steel Storage Shed Filled with Boats
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When a 100 X 315-foot storage shed filled with boats, some stacked four high, became fully involved in fire after an explosion, the unprotected all-steel construction of the shed lived up to its reputation and the roof collapsed 10 minutes after the arrival of the first companies of the Seminole, Fla., Fire Department.
The fire at the Bay Pines Marina spread so fast that lines could not be laid and supplied fast enough. It was estimated that there was more than 5000 gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel in the tanks of the boats stored in the 250-craft facility.
The roof peak was some 50 feet high, and there were numerous fiberglass panels in the roof to admit light. At the outset of the fire, these panels quickly succumbed to the heat and fell out, providing early roof ventilation.
The fire was first reported by a resident of a neighboring campground who heard the explosion and saw smoke coming out the boat shed. There was only one employee in the shed at the time.
Smoke pouring out building.
I was in the fire department administration office when the alarm came in at 1231 hours last May 25, and when I immediately went out the front door, I saw smoke in the sky some 2 1/2 miles away. When Fire Inspector Ben Cramer and I arrived on the scene, smoke was pouring out both ends of the structure and about two-thirds of the skylights had already failed. The wind was out of the east at 5 to 10 mph and flowing straight in the 30-foot-high open doors.
The first alarm assignment consisted of Engines 222, 225 and 226, Aerial 236, Rescue 234 and Squad 242. Before any of these units arrived, a second alarm was requested plus all available foam.
Engine 226 was ordered to catch the hydrant at 94th St. and Bay Pines Blvd. and lay a single 3-inch line to the west end of the building which was some 1950 feet away. Engine 222 then started a stretch from Engine 226, but it ran out of hose. So it continued on to the hydrant and pumped the single line.
Only three minutes after my arrival on the fireground, I requested a full alarm assignment from the St. Petersburg Fire Department, which consisted of three engines, an aerial, squad and rescue, as well as a command post vehicle. Engine 9 was the first to arrive and laid an additional 3-inch line from the only hydrant into Engine 226. Engine 9 then drove past the fire, which had broken through the walls, and drafted salt water along with Engines 225 and 229. Aerial 236 had begun to set up midway along the south side of the building but had to move when the fire broke through the walls.
Deputy Chief Douglas Meyer arrived early in the operations and tried to make entry in the east end door with a crew on a 2 1/2-inch hand line and a deluge set. He was about 100 feet inside when a boat exploded, sending fire throughout most of the building.
Deputy Chief Robert Genhold at the same time was working with a crew on a 2 1/2-inch line in the west when a flaming boat fell from a rack and an explosion occurred, knocking his crew to the ground. At 1251 hours, only 12 minutes after my arrival, I knew the entire building was lost and ordered all lines to cover exposures.
The fire was uncontrollable from the beginning because of the exploding fuel tanks. There was no immediate water available from hydrants as the nearest plug was 1950 feet from the structure. Eventually, three lines were laid from that hydrant to Engine 226 and Engine 6. The drafting operations had their difficulties with silt and fiberglass residue continually filling the suction strainers.
The mutual aid help that St. Petersburg, Madeira Beach, Indian Rocks,
Redington Beach and Pinellas Park gave was invaluable. The sheriffs department was on the scene early and did most of the evacuation of the area without any problems.
Mobile homes saved
At one point I thought that six to 10 mobile homes that were 70 feet away would be lost as they had begun to smoke from the radiant heat. Because of some tough fire fighters, the damage was only to the exterior finish of the homes.
There were no serious injuries and only a couple of men required any aid.
An insurance representative was on the scene early and cooperated by getting heavy equipment to aid in pulling the debris apart so that hose streams could be applied to the piles of fiberglass and residue. Security police were brought in to control access to the site for a number of days.
The fire prevention bureau of the Seminole Fire Department was able to determine which boat the fire started in, and suspected an electrical malfunction as the cause.
Most of the boats stored in the dry storage area were fiberglass and wood and as the structure failed, they fell on top of each other, creating a 3 to 10-foot-high pile of fiberglass matting and resins. This continued to burn for several days. The aerial truck and one engine supplied water on the site for over 24 hours.
Water supply problem
The nearest fire hydrant was nearly 2000 feet from the closest point of the building. The codes say that a hydrant should be located no more than 300 feet away and that water at draft can be only a secondary source. However, the building was built prior to many of the present codes being enforced and thus no hydrants or sprinklers were installed.
The building covered approximately 31,500 square feet and was 50 feet high.
Thus there was about 1,575,000 cubic feet under the roof. According the Iowa fire flow formula, the volume of the building divided by 100 is the fire flow in gpm needed to extinguish the fire. As the figures show, approximately 16,000 gpm would have been needed to extinguish this fire.
It was reported that about 20 percent of the boats were not insured. Some of these were in the $10,000 to $20,000 range. The total loss is estimated at 5 1/2 to 6 million dollars.
These large dry storage structures will continue to be a problem for the fire service as long as codes are not followed and enforced. Sprinklers and other extinguishing systems are needed in all of these buildings.
