KEYPORT, Wash. –
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility led the Northwest Regional Fire Safety, Prevention and Response Summit April 6 and 7, welcoming eight organizations to the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington, for a two-day event. Sessions during the summit focused on solving major challenges in preventing shipboard fires, educating workers in proper safety protocols and finding ways to more effectively train others in fire prevention.
The summit was part of PSNS & IMF's renewed effort to prevent shipboard fires and protect its workers. Representatives from PSNS & IMF, Trident Refit Facility- Bangor, Naval Base Kitsap, Naval Station Everett, Commander Submarine Group Nine, Navy Region Northwest and the City of Poulsbo were present to collaborate.
“Fire safety should be foremost in our minds,” said Capt. Jip Mosman, commander, PSNS & IMF. “We work in a very dangerous environment—an industrial environment. The reality is a fire can happen at any time. Your challenge here is how to build the safest environment. It’s not just for our contractors, our Ship’s Force or our emergency services. When an emergency happens, we need to know how to respond together.”
The emphasis on collaboration is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to shipboard fires and how to respond to them. Knowing all the principles of shipboard fire safety is essential for many of PSNS & IMF’s employees who find themselves shipboard during the course of their daily work.
Last month, multiple PSNS & IMF shops and codes held safety stand downs to place a renewed emphasis on the four principles of fire safety. During those stand downs, the four principles of Preparation, Prevention, Protection and Response were reinforced and demonstrated. The importance of these principles was furher highlighted during this week's summit.
“If you don’t have a plan to start with, you will not win the battle, “said Chief David Michaelson, fire chief, Navy Region Northwest Fire & Emergency Services. “Fire response is only one half of this. Fire safety experts making checks and ensuring fire load management — all of those steps are important in preventing a major fire.”
While attendees shared knowledge, experiences and insight from their combined decades of experience, they also had an opportunity to catch up with familiar faces and forge new partnerships.
“[Working together] is challenging because discussions like this usually involve a lot of stovepiping and backbriefing,” said Cmdr. Pete Norgaard, repair officer, Trident Refit Facility. “So many times we start solving our own problems without factoring in the big picture and how others are involved. A conference like this helps with the conversations and helps form personal relationships.”
Jeremey Trul, director of Waterfront Operations, Code 101.3, Waterfront Operations, noted that the work of fire safety personnel is difficult, but summits like this help ease some of those challenges by giving attendees the opportunity to manage shipboard fire safety together.
Mosman addressed those changes directly as he spoke to those in attendance.
“I think we are in a better place than we were a year ago,” he said. “That being said, we still have more to do. What I want from this conference isn’t just to talk about responses, but to emphasize the importance of teaming.”
By bringing groups like these together, PSNS & IMF is generating new energy and effort into one of the most vital aspects of safety on our waterfront—shipboard fire safety—and taking care of its most important asset: its people.