So, we are coming in from offshore, it's about 2200 and I am up early. My watch doesn't start until midnight. I'm up in the wheelhouse, as is the whole crew, but for the deckhand. The weather has greatly improved since the morning when the latest cold front had come through with 25-30 knot winds and 6-8 foot seas with occasional 10's. Winds have shifted and lightened considerably and it is only about a 2-4 foot sea by now.
Ricky, the other captain, is on the wheel and notices the RPM's falling on the starboard inboard engine and so sends Dustin, the engineer down to see what is going on. About 45 seconds later he is running back up the stairs yelling "Fire in the engine room!"
Harold, the mate, and I take off for the engine room grabbing extinguishers as we go. Harold and Dustin get in ahead of me. I standby the door while they use the extinguishers on the fire. The left bank turbo on the starboard inboard has flames licking up off of it, but not for much longer. The extinguishers make short work of it.
Damages seem to be minimal, as the only obvious thing aside from a partially melted air separator is some melted wiring. The cause of the fire appears to a leak from an oil line that was dripping on the turbo. All things considered it went extremely well, it was quickly extinguished, no one was hurt, and it barely affected our ability to operate.
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