For the second year in a row, the Port of Tacoma hosted a regional exercise focused on vessel fires, bringing together first responders, government agencies and industry partners.  

As part of this two-day event in June, Wallenius Wilhelmsen welcomed firefighters from Tacoma and Seattle aboard one of its roll-on/roll-off ships, to familiarize them with the vessel layout and onboard firefighting capabilities. 

In the case of a vessel fire at a dock, the ship’s crew would take the lead, and the owner would bring in marine firefighting specialists.  

Local firefighters would provide support, such as cooling the vessel by spraying water on the hull.   

Captain Jonathan Streett, Manager of Cargo Quality for Wallenius Wilhelmsen, said his company has hosted similar tours for first responders at more than 40 ports around the world. 

“If there is ever a situation, they're not walking in blind. They know what our capabilities are, and they know what we would need them to assist us with,” Capt. Streett said.  

Firefighters regularly respond to building fires and car crashes. “We're accustomed to doing all of these daily incident responses, but boarding a ship is not something that we do every day,” said Chelsea Shepherd of the Tacoma Fire Department.  

“In most structural fires you're taught about ventilating and putting as much water on as possible. For marine firefighting, you want to almost the exact opposite,” said Bryan Alonso of Resolve Marine Group.  Alonso said shipboard fires are fought by keeping sections of the vessel closed off and smothering the flames with onboard CO2 systems.  

Exercise attendees visited Resolve’s Tacoma location to learn about the company’s marine firefighting capabilities and equipment. They also toured the Port of Tacoma to better understand the layout and emergency access to marine terminals managed by The Northwest Seaport Alliance. 

“The more we can sort these things out ahead of time, the better the Port and this entire region will be to respond to these actual incidents,” said Alisa Praskovich, Chief of Strategic Projects and Commission Relations at the Port of Tacoma.  

Two leaders of the United States Coast Guard response to a car carrier fire in Jacksonville, Florida detailed their experience for attendees.  

Joshua Rose, Port Recovery Specialist MSU Savannah, and David Barnes, Commercial Vessel Safety Specialist, discussed lessons learned from the 2020 dockside fire of the Hoegh Xiamen. 

Facilitators from The Response Group led participants in an exercise to identify and discuss opportunities for strengthening the regional response to shipboard fires, particularly those carrying cars with lithium batteries. 

“We're a major auto import facility, one of the biggest ones on the West Coast, and it's just prudent for us prepare for these kinds of incidents,” said Eric Johnson, Port of Tacoma Executive Director.  

The event not only focused participants on addressing the challenges of shipboard fires but helped build relationships that will be critical for an emergency response.  

It follows a tabletop exercise the Port hosted in June 2024, the region’s first in many years.  

 “We do not want to be unprepared, and getting people together is one of the most important things you can do,” Johnson said.