Shocks and tingles from marine voltage, the discovery of unpermitted electrical work, and an incomplete grounding job have placed Menemsha Harbor under scrutiny this summer. Yet they are not the only dangers and deficiencies to recently be uncovered there.
After multiple boat fires erupted in Island waters this summer — three of which, the Governor, the Witch of Endor, and the second ignition of the Sundowner, were put out with portable fire extinguishers — dockside extinguishers along Chilmark’s harbor were found in various states of neglect despite several being readily observable from the harbormaster’s shack. Sporadic short-term maintenance and undelegated overall responsibility were to blame.
The upkeep of Menemsha’s dockside fire extinguishers hasn’t been the specific duty of any town department, Chilmark Fire Chief David Norton told The Times Monday. Several years ago he installed extinguishers along the harbor, where they have remained to date, he said.
This was not at the direction of the selectmen or the harbormaster’s office, but an initiative he took as a matter of public safety, he said. Who was responsible for upkeep was never formalized, he said. Reached by phone on Tuesday, Jim Malkin, the selectmen’s liaison to the harbor, said he was aware that responsibility for harborside extinguisher upkeep was previously ill-defined, and that recently the harbormaster’s office was designated the entity in charge of Menemsha’s extinguishers by his authority.
The cabinets the extinguishers rest in an area subject to “hellish winds” that vibrate their doors and cause them to crack, Chief Norton said. Salt air also penetrates the cabinets and attacks the extinguishers. In addition to punishment by the elements, he said from time to time the extinguishers are stolen, and the thefts go unreported.
Chief Norton, who is currently on medical leave, said he tends to the extinguishers when time permits, but not at the direction of the town. The fire department lacks the capacity to routinely inspect and maintain the extinguishers on a tighter-than-annual cycle because, with the exception of himself, the department is all volunteer. Stewardship of the extinguishers isn’t as logistically simple as it might seem, he said. He suggested replacing the cabinets with sturdier models.
Repaired and inspected
The fire extinguishers near the harbormaster’s shack in Menemsha sported fresh inspection tags, and sat in cabinets sealed with new doors, when The Times visited the harbor Saturday. One cabinet held a newly installed extinguisher when previously it had been vacant. Harbormaster staff installed a new extinguisher hanger in that cabinet, according to Mr. Malkin. Last week, The Times found three fire extinguisher cabinets in poor condition. One of the three was also missing its extinguisher. The Times also found many 30-amp socket boxes devoid of protective covers on July 25. All but one sported a protective cover on July 29. Two of the fire extinguishers by the harbormaster’s shack bore tags that read “Inspected by: G.D. 7/28” in black marker Saturday. The tags had no other printing on them. On the third, there was a commercial tag: “Ralph J. Perry, Inc.” from Hyannis. The hole-punched date was October, with no year given. Two other extinguishers in pedestal cabinets on the transient dock, also both tagged by Ralph J. Perry, Inc., were hole-punched for 2017, whereas last week they were only punched for 2016.
No Ralph J. Perry, Inc., employees were on Martha’s Vineyard between Friday, July 28, and Monday, July 31, Kim Sullivan, the company’s owner, told The Times. Her company replaces tags at every annual inspection, and therefore doesn’t make additional punch holes for subsequent inspections, she said. A punch hole near the numerals 2017 on at least one transient dock extinguisher tag was slit-like, while on the same tag, the punch hole next to the numerals 2016 was circular, the typical punch mark for Ralph J. Perry, Inc.
According to Mr. Malkin, who said he witnessed the activity, assistant fire chief Tim Carroll worked on the various extinguisher tags on the extinguishers in the three cabinets near the harbormaster’s shack and the two inside pedestal cabinets on the transient dock.
The Times visited Menemsha Monday and discovered two other fire cabinets — one on the West Dock and one near the charter dock — without doors. On the extinguishers inside them were year-old inspection tags. Along the commercial wharf span between the shellfish constable’s berth near the fuel dock and the charter dock by Larsen’s Fish Market — well over 200 feet — there were no extinguishers. The National Fire Protection Association’s Fire Protection Standards for Marinas and Boatyards stipulates that portable extinguishers along bulkheads and piers are to be situated at a minimum of every 75 feet, and that extinguishers along bulkheads and piers must be shielded from “environmental exposure to prevent damage and lack of operability.”
Chief Norton said he brought the new cabinet doors, which he had stowed in the firehouse, down to Menemsha. He did not say whether he installed them. He noted that in addition to the extinguishers he has provided along the harbor, a great number of incidental extinguishers should be at hand in Menemsha at any given time, because Coast Guard regulations require motorcraft over a certain length to have an extinguisher onboard.
When a massive fire ripped through Coast Guard Station Menemsha’s boathouse in 2010, Chief Norton’s extinguishers proved shrewd investments. As the boathouse conflagration spread, it ignited docked boats and ate away mooring lines. This sent burning boats across the harbor toward the commercial wharf and Dutcher dock. Harbormaster Dennis Jason and assistant harbormaster Cody Gray towed one of these flaming boats away moments before it collided with the fuel dock. When another burning boat drifted across and came against the wharf along another point, its flames were suppressed by an impromptu crew of lifeguards, fishermen, and Texaco staff, who used fire extinguishers Chief Norton installed. Either the same folks or other bystanders employed additional dockside extinguishers to snuff out burning debris that cascaded over the wharf and bulkhead and threatened to set ablaze bulkhead shacks, the Chief said.
Fire extinguishers may be especially critical devices in Menemsha due to the limited water supply there. Chilmark doesn’t have a municipal hydrant system. The water servicing the two private hydrants closest to the harbor — one across from the Home Port and one just before the little bridge on Basin Road near Crick Hill Road — are owned by the Menemsha Water Com. Cooperative Corp., and connected to a water tower with about a 5,000-gallon capacity, according to the chief, a fairly limited volume for firefighting. Fire crews resorted to pumping seawater through fire engines during the boathouse fire, he said.
