By STEVE WILHELM STAFF WRITER
Jonathan Kjaerulff's course in life was set in 1983, after he watched four men "nearly die of ignorance."
Kjaerulff was just 23, fresh out of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, standing his first watch as a mate on his first ship, a fish processor in Alaska's Bering Sea. Suddenly he received an emergency radio message that a fishing boat eight miles away was taking on water and sinking. As his own ship surged to the rescue at a ponderously slow eight knots, Kjaerulff watched through binoculars as the stricken vessel slowly foundered and sank.
When Kjaerulff's ship arrived at the scene an hour later, he found the four crew members bobbing in the frigid water, clinging for their lives to an inflatable life raft canister. They'd nearly drowned because none of them had been trained how to pull the lanyard that would have inflated the raft.
"It
was something I've always remembered," he said. "A lot of times people go to
work in a harsh and unforgiving environment and they're not prepared, and they
don't know what's needed to be prepared. It's tragic when people have this
equipment on board, and they die because they don't know how to use it."
It wasn't until six years later that Kjaerulff decided to make a business from this experiences. He'd been at sea most of the time since, he'd had a lot of time to think, and he thought he'd identified an unmet need.
"I really saw a need for safety survival training, and for firefighting training," he said.
His company, Fremont Maritime Services, struggled in the beginning and at times nearly foundered. But today it has grown to be well- known in maritime circles, training mariners up and down the West Coast in emergency tech- niques of marine rescue, survival, first aid and firefighting.
Last month Kjaerulff landed his biggest prize yet, a five-year, $5 million contract to train Navy sailors from the Everett and Bremerton bases in fire fighting techniques.
This year Kjaerulff expects his company will generate about $1.5 million in revenue, representing a general growth trend over several years. The company employs four full-time trainers, and About 10 part-time people, most of them emergency workers and firefighters.
"These guys really know their stuff, and they're uncompromising," said Mike Sutton, director of safety and quality assurance for Foss Maritime Co. "You know, when you sit through one of their sessions, that these guys are really passionate about what they're doing."
Every year Sutton sends more than 500 Foss employees, from California to Alaska, through Fremont Maritime Services' program.
Another big vessel operator, Holland American Line-Westours Inc., also depends on Fremont Maritime Services, in this case to train up to 200 people a year.
The Seattle-based operator of large cruise ships sends Fremont Maritime Services' crews around the world - to Athens, Rotterdam, London and Australia - to train crew members in flrefighting, lifeboat handling, and even crisis management of large groups.
"In our view they have set a very high standard of excellence," said Nick Schowengerdt, Holland America director of policy and planning. "Fremont successfully survived the scrutiny of the Dutch government, and was approved by them to do training for us, which is a pretty high-marks kind of thing."
While Fremont Maritime Services teaches many maritime-related emergency techniques, the company is probably best-known for its firefighting training. That's largely due to the M/v Fire Dragon, the 120-foot fire-training ship that Kjaerulff and his colleagues designed, built and now operate, on a leased piece of Foss Maritime's property on the north shore of Seattle's Lake Washington Ship Canal.
The M/v Fire Dragon is really a metal building that looks like a ship. It offers a full-sized recreation of all the situations firefighters are likely to encounter aboard a real ship, in the engine room, pump room, helicopter pad and other areas. It's all made realistic with propane burners and smoke generators that can instantly turn sections of the ship into searing ovens of flame, with temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
During
a recent visit, full-suited trainees wielding hoses battled their way into a
flame- filled compartment on the Fire Dragon, while smoke poured from the
vessel's open windows. The heat was intense.
Foss's Sutton said the realism of the training can payoff in tight situations. For instance, the Foss tug P.J. Brix suffered a fire in a forward hold several months ago, and crew members later reported the training had made the situation seem familiar, helping them quench the flames more quickly.
"To comply with the minimum of the law we could show them some videos and read the book," Sutton said. "The Fremont guys make it real."
The growth of Kjaerulff's business has been tied to the increasingly specific regulations that regulate the marine business.
When he first started Fremont Maritime Services, vessel owners only paid for maritime emergency training if they wanted to, and often they didn't. For Kjaerulff, that meant a lot of slow months.
"The first seven years were pretty scary. I could have made a lot more money by going to sea," he said.
But that started changing when the Commercial Fishing Industry Vessel Act went into effect in 1991, requiring regular emergency training for at least one member of larger fishing vessels. The laws have continued to strengthen, and now the owners of commercial vessels above a certain size are required to install and maintain firefighting and rescue equipment, and to keep their crews trained and certified to use the equipment.
The company's first big break came in 1994, when it won a $75,000 contract through the California Department of Fish and Game to teach fishers how to use survival and other emergency equipment.
Then in 1995 the United States signed onto international agreements requiring merchant mariners to be certified through a basic five-day course in fire fighting, sea survival and first aid. Last year that law brought about 1,800 students to the Fremont school.
"That's become a big thing for us," Kjaerulff said. "Thirteen years ago when I started the company, I felt that this was training everyone should go through who works on a boat. As time goes by, a lot of people agree with that idea."
Reach Steve Wilhelm at 206-447-8505 ext. 113 or swilhelm@bizjournals.com