The Steam Boat Association of Great Britain
Safety Topics

Safety considerations raised in Funnel 104.

I was recently reading a steam railway magazine, (I know, but we all have our secret reading) and read about a nasty accident involving a blowback through a fire door. The poor fireman was in agony for some time until they could get the train to somewhere where they could meet an ambulance.

The usual advice given for first aid to a burns victim is cold water. This was not possible as the 4500 gallons in the tender could only be got out via the injector, and a slacker pipe so it was hardly cold and therefore not much use.

It set me thinking about how to deal with that sort of emergency on a boat, possibly the same problems with not very rapid access to medical care if you had a way to go. I know the blowback problem is less likely but it could happen.

I decided to ask for some advice from the experts. First of all I tried our friendly local chemists, but all they could offer was a tube of ointment which didn't look like it would do the job.

I decided the best people might be the Accident and Emergency at the hospital (after all they were the people who would take over the problem eventually). It was a quiet afternoon and the Charge Nurse in A&E (you know, like Charlie from Casualty, but without the personal problems) gave me 15 minutes of his valuable time.

First he dealt with the blowback from the fire door. Very hot, of course, but probably of short duration and only likely to badly burn the surface of the skin (only?) It will hurt --- A lot.

The old advice about cold water would seem to apply but not of it is river water or treated feed water and definitely not if it is canal water or you will get infections which will be much worse than the burn if left untreated with water.

Of course. get the patient to hospital as quick as you can, but he is unlikely to get much worse in the short term. Except that it will hurt.

The high pressure/temperature steam burn is the really bad one. The burns will be very deep and probably burn away the nerve endings along with everything else. The patient will be in deep Shock and will rapidly die from fluid loss, he will probably lose consciousness and may lose pulse very quickly. Ironically he will probably not suffer much pain as there is little to hurt with the nerve endings burnt away. Don't read the next bit if you are squeamish. (Ed: I am). The other clue if this is the case is that there will be a terrible smell of burnt flesh.

With this sort of injury the only hope is very rapid transport to hospital. We are probably talking helicopters here, or at least into an ambulance with a paramedic within minutes.

So, now his advice on emergency equipment. A lot more simple than you might think. A mobile telephone to get the experts in and a 2 litre bottle of drinking water. Supermarket stuff is fine, change it every year. If you really feel keen a sterile burn dressing might help but the mobile telephone seems the best bit of kit. There is really nothing else an untrained person can do and there are no magic potions.

Oh, and you might need the tube of ointment from the chemists if you happen to touch a bit of hot metal.

Safety Topics