Exceptional report.
I knew the Captain, who was a fine man, a loving husband and father and a very conscientious crewmember. I watched him progress from FE, to FO, then Captain on the Classic. We had many good flights and layovers.
Poor crew was dealt a bad hand on that flight. I can't help but think that having a Classic, three-person crew might have resulted in a more successful outcome. When things go really ugly, a good PFE/FE is a big asset.
Swissair at Halifax was a real eye-opener. I remember doing an onboard fire scenario in the simulator where it was emphasized to get the airplane on the ground (or ditch if over water) within 15-20 minutes. That's a pretty tall order in real time when there is heavy smoke, poor comm with ATC, the smoke mode fails with #1 Pack and your O2 quits. Imagine being over 30 West or someplace similar at night. I never bought into the FL250 fire fighting technique, particularly with Li batteries onboard or an O2-fed fire. Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you, I guess.
I'm retired from UPS, but I understand they now have EVAS and fire resistant ULD's. Glad to hear. Any on board fire/smoke mitigation is a good thing.