Leading HI-FOG Marine Crew Training: How Karel Knevel prepares crews to operate with confidence

Karel Knevel is the Manager of Marioff’s HI-FOG Marine Crew Training program, with more than 20 years’ combined experience at sea, fire-protection and training. He leads and is responsible for competence-based Onboard, Onsite, and Online crew training, preparing crews to operate high-pressure HI-FOG water-mist systems safely and confidently in emergency situations.

Karel’s expertise is built on experience, people and purpose. On the night of January 5th, 1988, in the Beagle Channel, South America, as a young graduate marine engineer, he experienced firsthand how skills learned from safety drills helped him respond calmly and efficiently, enabling everyone to abandon ship safely during flooding.

Karel could not have predicted how this event would change the course of his life, eventually leading him to move to Finland and work for Marioff. When embarking on the next ship one month later, in the port of Colombia, Sri Lanka, Karel met her: “She had long, blond, curly hair”, he describes his now wife for 35 years.

Life at sea gave Karel practical insight into how ships operate and how differently people respond under pressure. “When you work on a vessel, you see how people handle unexpected situations,” he says. The journey shaped Karel’s belief that safety at sea is ultimately about people: their reactions, their confidence to respond quickly and decisively, their effective use of equipment, their ability to work together, and their ability to stay calm.

“Working for a company like Marioff, with a mission to save people’s lives, feels like being a missionary bringing good news,” Karel describes. When relocating to Finland, after completing studies in Vocational education (BSc.) and Business, he happily accepted the opportunity to work for Marioff, realizing that all was meeting its purpose.

Today, Karel is excited to share news about the unique and dedicated HI-FOG Crew Training Center in Vantaa, Finland. This site brings together a pump bunker for live operational drills, a demo room for real-time testing, a showroom for product launches and client events and a modern classroom for lecturers and certifications. Master class training sessions, emphasizing practical competence, can be complemented by real-life fire extinguishing exercises, a factory tour, and other Finland fun activities.

Calm, structured and people-centered, Karel’s methods focus on translating system behavior into observable cues the crew can recognize in an emergency. He encourages open dialogue and practical troubleshooting, using ship-specific scenarios to make learning directly applicable on board. “My goal is that every participant leaves able to operate and maintain the system confidently,” he says.

Seeing confidence grow is one of the most rewarding parts of Karel’s work. “HI-FOG is a highly reliable system, but people still play an important role in the outcome after a real emergency and in reducing lifecycle costs. When crew members trust the system and trust themselves, safety improves at every level.”

“We are living in exciting times, and we see an increasing demand for ship-specific Onboard crew training and for Onsite crew training at the training center in Finland – so far the only one in the world. To facilitate the needs of customers locally, we can hopefully soon open a second HI-FOG Training Center in another part of the world,” Karel concludes.