Action under fire lauded

PROUD MOMENT: LSMT Ian Mills with a commendation for dousing a fire onboard HMAS Tobruk in 2004. Photo: ABPH Helen Frank.

By Michael Brooke

A sailor’s courage extinguishing a fire onboard HMAS Tobruk was acknowledged by Maritime Commander Australia, RADM Davyd Thomas at a ceremony at FBE recently.

RADM Thomas presented LSMT Ian Mills with a Maritime Commander’s Commendation and said the courage he displayed in extinguishing the fire in Tobruk’s machinery space on October 13, 2004 was “absolutely brilliant”.

‘Luckily instinct took over and I conducted the firefighting drills I had been taught in training.’
– LSMT Ian Mills

The Maritime Commander said “if not for the action taken by LSMT Mills, the incident may have escalated into a major fire, which would have seriously jeopardised the safety of the ship and the crew.”

LSMT Mills, 25, who joined the Navy five years ago to escape the boredom of his civilian job, said he didn’t have time to worry about personal safety.
“There was a fire and luckily instinct took over and I conducted the firefighting drills I had been taught in training,” he said.

The fire developed in a ship service diesel generator in the auxiliary machine room.
Acting with another watchkeeper, AB Dave Finney, LSMT Mills entered the machinery space and promptly isolated the fuel leak by shutting down the engine.

LSMT Mills then extinguished a heat-ignited fire that had started inside the engine’s exhaust cowling, and made the surrounding area safe from further breakdowns by smothering the engine and adjacent machinery using a fire extinguisher.

RADM Thomas said that LSMT Mills’ “quick actions and courage while under pressure serves as an outstanding example to others and are in the finest traditions of the RAN”.

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