The Maritime Fire and Safety Association supports shipboard fire training and equipment for land-based firefighters from 11 agencies in Oregon and Washington. Membership consists of 24 ports and private facilities along the Lower Columbia and Willamette Rivers. They tasked themselves with developing a system to ensure adequate, timely and well-coordinated response to ship fires along the 110-mile shipping channel, which includes two states, seven counties, 14 cities, seven port districts and more than 25 agencies.

"Other regions of the country have sought to create something which they believe to be similar, but these have been largely unsuccessful. Why?" asks the association's 25th-anniversary federal report. "MFSA is the result of the collaboration of local interests … utilizing the resources that each of those local interests could contribute. In some cases, the contribution was equipment, in others manpower, and it has been funded through self-assessment. In other words, MFSA was established before and without federal funding."

Roots in tragedy

In 1982, a bulk grain carrier called the M/V Protector Alpha was refueling at a grain facility on the Columbia River when fire broke out aboard the vessel. The Kalama (Wash.) Fire Department was called in to combat the fire; two neighboring departments assisted in the effort. Coast Guard personnel arrived soon after, and the agencies formulated a plan to extinguish the fire.

Minutes before extinguishment, the dock foreman ordered the ship cast off from the dock, without consulting any of the firefighters. The vessel was cast adrift, with several firefighters stranded aboard. The ship dropped anchor about 1,000 yards downstream, out of reach of all firefighting equipment that had been left behind. The vessel was destroyed; one U.S. Coast Guardsman was killed and a local firefighter was injured.

In 1983, port authorities, private companies, federal and state agencies, counties, and fire districts formed the MFSA in response to the tragedy. Their goal was to promote fire protection, safety, and enhancement of navigation on the lower Columbia and Willamette Rivers.

The Fire Protection Agencies Advisory Committee was formed in 1986 to develop a comprehensive system to ensure effective response to vessel fire incidents in the lower-Columbia region. The committee purchased and delivered the first specialized equipment to participating fire agencies for fighting marine fires.

The committee has progressed from "planning and responding as individual agencies, to planning, training, and responding as a team — a concept that is, quite literally unheard of across the rest of the nation," says Mike Schiller, former MFSA board president and Port of Vancouver USA operations manager.

F-PAAC now is comprised of 10 fire agencies located throughout the river system. These agencies voluntarily contribute both staff time and equipment for participation in meetings, drills and other training exercises. Mutual-aid agreements, signed by all participating fire agencies, enable those agencies to assist each other in the event of a shipboard fire.

Funding without feds

While there were no shipboard fires in 2007 or 2008, MFSA did not let up on training activities. Participating firefighting agencies have accrued more than 92,000 training hours since 1983. This equates to more than $2.5 million in time investment.

Over the past 25 years, others regions sought federal funds to establish and underwrite the response training, equipment acquisition and administration.

"Congress has repeatedly rejected such attempts," the MFSA's federal report reads. "In fact, the Coast Guard Authorization Act specifically limits federal support for such entities to those in which the federal contribution to operating budget is less than 15% of the total. In other words, the feds will assist, but will not carry the load. And that has scared away most of the people who have wanted to form an MFSA but have the federal government pay for it."

Instead of relying on federal dollars, association members approved a per-vessel assessment that they collect from all ocean-going vessels that call at a member's dock. This funding goes toward the purchase of specialized firefighting equipment and provides for the ongoing training and education of member fire agencies in the response to vessel emergencies.

Merchants Exchange in Portland provides full program management support. Knowledgeable staff, committed members, dedicated board and committee members, and a Lower Columbia and Willamette River System communications capability are key to MFSA's continuing success.

Doris Allen, senior administrator at Merchants Exchange for MFSA, is "amazed by people wanting to organize their own MFSA in their maritime communities but claiming that they could not work with so many entities. I'm so proud to work in a region and community that says ‘just do it,' and we do. We get it done."

Lewis Tycer is a freelance writer.

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