Please note - Registration will close on Sunday, February 14, 2021. A link to join the webinar will be emailed to you on Monday, February 15, 2021.
Please join the Hampton Roads section for a webinar from Mr. Jack McGowan and Capt. Shawn C. Smith on the topic of fire safety in shipyards.
Throughout the course of history, shipboard fires have led to catastrophic losses in terms of both lives and equipment. Recently, multiple concerns about shipboard fires were raised over a short period of time, resulting in a NAVSEA investigation. US Navy commands and private industry partners were directed to submit self-assessments to NAVSEA Headquarters detailing the results of the evaluation, to include root causes. NAVSEA analyzed the information that was provided from shipyards performing shipbuilding and ship repair operations for the United States Navy. The data set that was provided to NAVSEA was a unique opportunity to evaluate the commonalities between facilities, public and private, which has not been available historically. This presentation examines the causal factors and recommendations to stem the number of industrial fires in public and private shipyards. One notable observation was that many of the root causes identified in the 1944 investigation of the fire onboard the USS Saturn, while in availability at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, are strikingly similar to those reported today. NAVSEA is interested in leveraging the lessons learned from the respondents and to capitalize on this unique data set with the intention of preventing fires that cost US Taxpayers millions of dollars on fire mishaps, that in many cases are preventable.
SPEAKERS
Jack McGowan is a Certified Safety Professional who works to help to NAVSEA safety professionals reduce injuries and mishaps at NAVSEA Field Activities, which include Warfare Centers, Regional Maintenance Centers, and Naval Shipyards. Before starting at NAVSEA Headquarters, Jack worked as a Safety Manager at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, San Diego Detachment and a Project Safety Manager at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton. Jack now is the lead Safety Professional for the Information and Analysis Branch in NAVSEA 04, Industrial Operation Directorate.
CAPT Shawn C. Smith currently serves as the Officer in Charge of the USNS Wheat Support Detachment. As a civilian CAPT Smith is the Director of Safety at Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) overseeing 80 commands serving 85,000 employees including Naval Shipyards, Supervisors of Shipbuilding, Regional Maintenance Centers, Surface and Undersea Warfare Centers. He is the Navy representative to the ANSI Z359 Fall Protection committee. He is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP) with numerous publications and presentations most recently in October of 2020 to Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers on “Shipboard Fire Protection during Maintenance Availabilities.”