To show my age now, I was there at a ship-fire incident. At that time SES had a Welfare section which provided catering to other services. So majority of Metro SES Units provided meals, etc within a warf shed to the incident teams.
The ship had a 'self ignition' smoldering fire deep within the hold (I think sheep feed pellets) and was berthed in Port Adelaide.
From memory the tactic was to seal the hold and flood the hold from the bottom with CO2. So pipes were installed from trucks on the warf to the bottom of the hold. Temperature sensors were installed at different levels in the hold to monitor the hot spots and how far the CO2 level was.
Trucks of CO2 were bought from Mt Gambier because Adelaide supplies were run out.
At the beginning of each SES Catering shift we were briefed on how much higher the CO2 level was within the hold and the danger of explosion if the fire self-combusted to a higher level.
After two weeks plus, SES was pulled out from the Welfare commitment. This was one of the last major welfare operations that SES did. I believe arguments occurred about money and the appropriateness of using volunteers for long-term Welfare operations.
