Life rafts can be dangerous?

[Nostrodamus]

Interesting one the other night.
An unattended boat in the marina set on fire.
It appears that the fire started in the life raft container and it is believed a flare spontaneously combusted.
Good reason to service your life raft.

 

[bbg]

I can't recall of hearing that any flare ever spontaneously combusted.

Is that the view following a professional investigation or just conjecture?

 

[sailorman]

Life is dangerous

 

[Nostrodamus]

bbg,
that is the result of seeing the life raft canister melted.

 

[KellysEye]

>I can't recall of hearing that any flare ever spontaneously combusted.

Me too, I don't see how it could happen you have to activate a flare. On the other hand somebody with a grudge, or for fun, could have put paraffin on it and set it on fire.

 

[Nostrodamus]

nope, no grudges, it just happened. I also don't see how setting someone's boat on fire could be classed as fun.
If you don't believe it then fine but if you see it then it does make you think.

 

[Mistroma]

Might it be more accurate to say that flares are dangerous. Would a flare stored in a container below deck pose a similar risk or is the life raft a special sort of container?

I suppose it is special insofar at it is sealed and contents can't be examined easily. I could just about imagine a flare being left in a position where is was ready to fire but difficult to imagine how it would be triggered. If we are back to it being spontaneous then it's down to flares being dangerous, not the life raft.

 

[bbg]

It still seems strange to me. Is there no chance it could have been something else? The most obvious is an electrical fire if the boat was on shore power or had solar panels charging the battery. Or possibly engine heat melting the canister, but that is less likely if the boat was unattended.

 

[Nostrodamus]

bbg, the boat was med moored stern too and the life raft was attached to the stern away from any other heat sources. Nobody was aboard nor had they been for several months. The engine had not been run.
I am no fire expert but I have been with the fire brigade on many occasions when looking for the seat of a fire. This one could not have started anywhere else but in the canister and the only thing I can think of in there which would be powerful enough to start a fire would be the flares?

 

[KellysEye]

> The most obvious is an electrical fire if the boat was on shore power or had solar panels charging the battery.

We saw two boats on fire one in Antigua Race Week and one on a buoy in Bonaire, both were caused by electrical fires, so you dont need to be on shore power and neither had solar panels. With the Bonaire fire the first thing we saw was smoke, then flames, then the mast fell down and it burnt down to the water line, it was towed out to be dive wreck. Strangely it didn't explode, we were waiting for the gas cylinder to go off. In Bonaire we also saw a cruise ship tug catch fire but they put it out.

 

[pmagowan]

I think the greatest danger from a liferaft is the temptation to use it when in an extreme situation. As the fastnet disater showed, the liferaft did not aid survival when the boat was still afloat. The problem is that people on a boat in extremely difficult conditions eventually, through exhaustion and fear take to the liferaft whether it is a good idea or not. I would not be any more concerned about flares on or off the liferaft although there is an argument to be made for the effectiveness against risk of flares on a boat.

 

[macd]

I think the greatest danger from a liferaft is the temptation to use it when in an extreme situation. As the fastnet disater showed, the liferaft did not aid survival when the boat was still afloat. The problem is that people on a boat in extremely difficult conditions eventually, through exhaustion and fear take to the liferaft whether it is a good idea or not. I would not be any more concerned about flares on or off the liferaft although there is an argument to be made for the effectiveness against risk of flares on a boat.

That's settled, then: liferafts occasionally combust to remind you they're not necessarily a safe place to be.
Very altruistic of them, I must say.

 

[Simondjuk]

I suspect that lithium batteries for the lights fitted to a liferaft are a more probable source of ignition than the flares.

 

[Strikeliner]

Simondjuk has hit the nail very, very firmly on the head.

 

[bitbaltic]

I suspect that lithium batteries for the lights fitted to a liferaft are a more probable source of ignition than the flares.

Yes that was what I was thinking. You can have anything you like packed in at service time too, so who knows what sources of ignition were in there- batteries, gas lighters, anything.