On-land tugboat simulator trains Burrard Inlet crews for marine fire disasters

Wearing heavy turnout gear and respirators, crews gather beside Burrard Inlet, preparing to attack a blaze deep inside a tugboat — except this vessel is sitting on dry land.

Seaspan has built an $800,000 land-based tugboat fire simulator, designed to train both shipyard workers and municipal firefighters to handle the intense and complex conditions of marine fires.

“It’s not just fire — it’s confined spaces we have to deal with,” said Dwayne Higgins, rescue safety lead for Seaspan and a former city firefighter. “How do we get to those fires? How do we get to our people? How do we get hose lines down there? That’s what this is about.”

The modular structure, named the Seaspan Responder, sits at the District of North Vancouver’s Maplewood Fire Centre. From the outside, it looks like a stack of metal containers resting on a small hull. Inside, steep stairways, tight corridors, low ceilings and protruding pipes mimic the cramped layout of a tugboat.

Gas burners create controlled flames and thick smoke in realistic problem areas: an engine room, a galley (kitchen), and machinery spaces filled with mock “diesel engines” and metal furnishings.

“It’s about understanding how a vessel operates, what’s in it, what obstacles we’re faced with, and how we’re going to deal with them,” Higgins said.

First line of defence

Recent sessions have seen volunteer shipbuilders — not career firefighters — running drills. Higgins describes them as the first line of defence if a fire breaks out while a vessel is under construction or repair.

Before one exercise, trainees gather in a circle on the asphalt as Higgins lays out the scenario: a galley fire that’s been burning for some time. Extinguishers haven’t worked, but the blaze is contained behind a thick metal door.

“Are we clear on that?” he asks. Heads nod.

“Okay guys, let’s do what we do.”

Two trainees move up to the smoking door, dragging hose behind them. They spray water on the metal first, watching how it reacts to judge the heat on the other side. After donning their breathing masks, they push the door open and are met with bright orange flames. Working on their knees, they advance carefully and knock down the fire with a focused stream.

In another drill, the crew tackles an “engine-room” fire — a particularly dangerous scenario, Higgins says, because of the presence of fuel, oils and chemicals, and the way heat and smoke can shoot upward like a chimney.

Higgins says the training isn’t about perfection, but about learning from mistakes in a controlled environment.

“It’s not just problem-solving,” he said. “It’s doing it safely and taking care of each other.”

Preparing for a busier waterfront

District of North Vancouver Assistant Fire Chief Gunter Kramer says the simulator has become a valuable tool as the region plans for more traffic and industry on the Burrard Inlet waterfront.

Currently, dedicated fireboats are operated out of Vancouver and would respond from the water to a major marine fire, while North Shore crews often have to approach incidents from land-based access points. Multiple agencies and overlapping jurisdictions make coordination challenging.

“This is a huge challenge, and we’re really just at the beginning of getting prepared for it,” Kramer said. “Financially, it’s a big impact on fire departments, but the risks on the waterfront are growing.”

He says having shipyard workers trained to respond quickly inside vessels adds another layer of protection, especially given their familiarity with ship layouts and ongoing construction work — conditions that can themselves increase fire risk.

Higgins agrees that while the Seaspan Responder is a major step, it’s only part of the solution.

“We need to be able to respond quickly and do the best we can with what we have,” he said. “This simulator helps us get there, but it also shows how important it is to keep improving our marine emergency response overall.”