HMCS Kootenay Anniversay Articles

http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/Commun/ml-fe/article-eng.asp?id=2033

Lessons learned in Kootenay fire remembered on its 36^th anniversary

by Virginia Beaton

HALIFAX - The 36th anniversary of the disastrous explosion and fire in HMCS Kootenay on October 23, 1969, was marked with a solemn ceremony at the Damage Control Division. Commander Robert Hovey, commanding officer of the Canadian Forces Naval Engineering School, welcomed the former members of Kootenay’s ship’s company, staff members and guests. A bearing that had been improperly assembled in the gearbox caused the Kootenay fire, killing nine. Despite the years that have passed, there remain strong memories of the tragedy. Ernie Moffat, a former sailor in Kootenay, reflected on the events of that day, and on the importance of damage control training. “The confidence and the ability for the ad hoc individuals to form the firefighting crews, and to attack the source of the fire, came as a direct result of the many hours that they [trained] here, in this very school,” he said. “We must never become complacent and ignore the operating and safety procedures at any particular time,” he cautioned. “When I look back, the root cause of Kootenay’s explosion was complacency.” Cdr Hovey recalled that when he started his damage control training, it was 15 years after the event. “Everything that we were doing related back to that particular incident,” he said. “Much of what we took for granted, as the way to do business, was the result of the lessons learned.” Captain(N) Gord Switzer, N1, A/COS Personnel and Training for MARLANT, remembers his uncle, a storesman serving in Kootenay at the time of the fire. Capt(N) Switzer’s father had received many frantic calls from his brother’s wife as she sought news of her husband. “We [The Navy] weren’t very good at talking to families back then, and it was a few days before many people knew what happened to the sailors onboard that ship,” he said. “But we have learned from that.” The Kootenay experience is now part of the knowledge upon which damage control training, as well as the improved links to CF families, are based. In the near future, a memorial to all those who lost their lives in naval service will be created, said Capt(N) Switzer. Lieutenant-Commander David Schilling, a US Navy exchange chaplain, led the audience in the Naval Psalm and the Naval Prayer, before reading the roll call of the sailors who were killed in the fire and explosion.

Ms. Beaton writes for the Trident.