Browsing: fires

Cruising Life
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How To Prevent Fires on Board: Some Reminders from the U.S. Power Squadrons

Few things are more frightening, or potentially more lethal, than fires on board. The real point, of course, is to prevent them from starting in the first place. I’ve found that often people who own diesel cruising boats don’t worry about fires that much. But diesel burns just as fast as gasoline does once it’s ignited; it’s just that the temperature at which diesel ignites is higher. And gas is explosive. All that’s to say that everyone would be well advised to take some simple precautions to prevent fires on board, because once they start, they often spread quickly. And…

Cruising Life
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Fires on Board: What You Can Do. A New Report and Video from the BoatU.S. Foundation

We’re all aware of the possibility of a fire on our boat. But I know from my own experience, and that of most of my friends, we tend to put that possibility in the back of our minds. Yes, we have enough extinguishers; yes, we check them periodically, and yes, we tell our family or crew where they are and how to use them. But that’s clearly not enough. Because fires are much worse than we think they are. They spread faster. They often cut off escape routes. They can be explosive. All this is spelled out in a great…