IUMI: Ships should be equipped with firefighting technology at the structural level

They describe today’s fires as true ‘Goliaths’, given the enormous increase in cargo volume. However, they emphasize that new and advanced technology can make a difference in firefighting. In this regard, they stress the importance of embedding clear firefighting and resource deployment tactics firmly into the safety management concept from the outset. They also discuss how every vessel needs to be equipped with the right extinguishing system from the start. IUMI aims to achieve a situation in which container ships of all sizes are able to cope with fires themselves and has reached out to IMO to forward related suggestions.

SAFETY4SEA: Fires on vessels remain one of the biggest safety issues for the maritime industry. What are the top priorities in the IUMI agenda to address this critical topic?

The problem can be split into two parts:1.) The stowage of incorrectly declared and undeclared dangerous goods, and 2.) the technical capabilities for detecting and fighting fire on board. It’s been a fact of life for more than 30 years that cargo is often incorrectly declared or undeclared and there appears to be no effective means of combating this. Shipowners and shippers want to overcome this problem with cargo screening products. During the same 30 year period, the technical capabilities for detecting and fighting fire on board have been sadly neglected and have not really been developed. These issues are top priorities on IUMI’s agenda.

S4S: What are the lessons learned from latest accidents involving containership fires? What issues related to reducing the risk of damage, loss and claims need urgent tackling?

If one takes account of the period during which the size of container ships has grown, it can be seen that the cargo volume and, consequently, the fire risk both on and below deck have increased enormously. However, during the same period, the firefighting equipment has not developed to keep pace with this increase. Up to 60% of cargo is transported on deck where, however, there are no detection capabilities and no fixed extinguishing systems installed. Below deck, fires are still detected using a system developed for small general cargo vessels back in the 1950s. This technical imbalance is the greatest problem today because, with the exception of incipient fires detected more or less by chance, ships have no effective means for fighting cargo fires. This is precisely where the focus must be placed. Detection on and below deck must be fundamentally reconsidered in the light of the technologies available today. When a fire has to be fought, “David” is confronted with a huge cargo fire and risks his life. The extinguishing systems must be fundamentally modified in a way that recognises that today’s fires are true “Goliaths”.

S4S: How may technology/digitization affect fire safety onboard?

When it comes to fighting a fire, time is crucial. It is precisely here that state-of-the-art detection technology can create the extra time that makes the difference. Heat detection at the container fronts can reveal internal fires significantly earlier. AI-based support permits the intelligent interpretation of the data, a comparison with the cargo (reefers), and an evaluation of the vessel’s structure (tanks), thereby preventing false alarms. There are two ways of going about detecting fires on deck. In the area of the lashing bridges, heat detection is possible using well-protected linear detectors, while the rest of the cargo can be monitored by CCTV cameras, which can detect smoke significantly earlier than the human eye.  However, digitalisation is also gaining ground in the logistics field. For example, by the end of this year, millions of so-called smart containers will be in transit on the world’s oceans. It would be a waste of the technical capabilities if these smart boxes were only to monitor and communicate their position. Equipped with thermal and gas sensors for typical products of combustion, such as CO, these smart boxes would be the most modern and effective fire detection systems currently available. The ships would simply have to be able to detect the signals from the boxes. If a GMS standard were to be used for this, then it should pose no problem. On-board fire detection would then be catapulted from the Stone Age into the here-and-now and the safety experts who equip warehouse complexes on dry land with detection and extinguishing systems would no longer shake their heads in dismay whenever they see a container ship.

S4S: What could be some best practices to manage damage/enhance safety performance onboard containerships?

Clear firefighting and resource deployment tactics must be firmly embedded in the safety management concept from the very outset. In many cases, manual firefighting operations on the part of the crew are not possible and cannot be conducted safely. That is why we need extinguishing equipment that can be used effectively from a distance and from a position of safety. Even though the stationary extinguishing systems currently used on ships have their shortcomings, their use should not be unnecessarily delayed. The activation of the extinguishing system must be directly accompanied by measures that prevent the fire from spreading or at least limit its propagation. In particular, this should be done using the “boundary cooling” technique, in which water is used to cool the area around the seat of the fire. Consequently, ships should be equipped with firefighting technology at the structural level since the crew members on board cannot sustain extended firefighting activities. To create fire compartments on deck, it will be necessary to install fixed spray systems that protect the hatches of the cargo holds in the horizontal direction and form water curtains at the superstructures and between the container bays.

S4S: Have you noticed any trend(s) during the last years and a possible alarming trend(s) for the years to come with respect to cargo handling?

Commercial pressure in ports seems to be so great that speed trumps all else during cargo handling, in particular during the vessel’s laytime. “For example, the “Top Tier” joint industry project of the Dutch MARIN Institute found that an average of 10% of surveyed deck cargo was not at the location indicated for it in the stowage plan. Thanks to digitalisation, there are now tools that make it possible to record these discrepancies and make them available to the ship for inspection purposes. Unfortunately, such inspections are not performed, presumably for reasons of cost and because they are not mandatory. This leaves the door wide open for incorrect stowage, including that of dangerous goods. Despite digitalisation, we have not yet succeeded in making the booking process transparent and sufficiently verifiable for it to be possible to detect incorrectly declared and undeclared DG cargo. Bigger and bigger ships are carrying more and more cargo and this automatically increases the risk of having undeclared or incorrectly declared DG cargo on board. Of course, the danger is not eliminated simply because the goods are declared correctly: dangerous goods are still dangerous goods. Correct declaration “only” prevents stowage errors and this, of course, greatly reduces the risk without, however, completely excluding it.

S4S: What are your suggestions for seafarers’ training in order to get better prepared to prevent fire hazards onboard?

On a ship, there are no professional or volunteer firefighters. There are only “involuntary” firefighters. It is not realistic to train sailors to be fully-skilled firefighters. However, it is important that future training courses for Masters and senior officers include training in firefighting and resource deployment. It will be necessary to teach them to distinguish between scenarios where direct manual firefighting is purposeful and those where it is more sensible to isolate the fire without putting any life at risk. It will be necessary to concentrate in more detail on the functioning of the stationary extinguishing systems without neglecting training in manual intervention. To this end, we recommend intensive courses of about two weeks in specialist training centres. In these courses, it will be necessary to practice coping with the strains of a firefighting operation under conditions similar to those of a real fire (including in terms of heat). On board, it is also necessary to conduct firefighting training at least once a month under conditions that are as realistic as possible. To do this, it will be necessary to equip crews with high-quality protective equipment. Fully equipped, the crew can then train in the roles assigned to them under pressurised conditions using all the available resources, including with hoses, monitors and water curtains. It is also necessary to train and practice using thermal imaging cameras and interpreting the information they deliver when looking for missing persons and identifying heated containers and ship structures.

S4S: What is your wish list for the industry and/or regulators and all parties involved with respect to container ship safety?

– Detection below deck and, where this is structurally possible, also on deck must be performed using heat detectors, preferably in the form of linear detectors.
– The entire deck stowage area must be monitored by CCTV cameras that benefit from AI support and have been specially designed for smoke detection.
– The vessel’s stowage area must be subdivided into fire compartments horizontally (deck) and vertically (superstructure as well as further lashing bridges and the bulkheads below them).
– The extinguishing system below deck must be water-based and extinguishing must be performed by spray equipment installed in the hatches.
– These water-based spray systems cool the hatches themselves and the cargo.
– Another water-based spray system must be installed to ensure the stability of the vessel’s structure, on the one hand, and to prevent heat transfer in any direction, on the other.
– Fixed monitors with remote IR control must be installed on deck to ensure effective cooling of the seat of the fire. Water volumes >4t /min.
– In order to prevent damage, these fixed monitors must be installed only at the superstructure fore and aft as well as at the foremast.
– The ranges of the monitors must be determined in such a way that any point on the deck can always be reached by two monitors simultaneously.
– If deck areas are covered by fore and aft monitors then the spray patterns of these monitors must overlap by at least 12 meters.
– The crew must have access to mobile monitors which they can use/position as supporting equipment.
– The crew must have access to mobile firefighting equipment and state-of-the-art protective equipment, including two IR cameras and sufficient compressed air breathing apparatus, at least six units on deck.

S4S: If you could change one thing that would have either an immediate or profound impact on industry’s safety performance, what would it be and why?

In order to provide the best possible protection for the environment, goods and, above all, human lives, we would like to see a knowledge-based, technologically open approach to raising the safety objectives to a level similar to that which we see used in buildings of all types on dry land.

S4S: Do you have any projects/ plans that you would like to share with industry stakeholders?

The topic of fires on container ships is currently being discussed by the IMO. This work will examine which improvements are cost-efficient. IUMI wants to reach a situation in which container ships of all sizes are able to cope with fires themselves. Here, no artificial definitions of cost-efficiency should be allowed to demarcate any questionable red lines leading, for example, to a protective system being considered feasible for a large two-island vessel but not for a “small” 14,000 TEU single islandship. IUMI will do everything it can to ensure that this initiative, which IUMI helped introduce to the IMO, brings about meaningful changes in vessel safety. The focus within this proactive, forward-looking approach is placed clearly on the safety of the crew, the cargo, the ship and the environment. When the new rules take effect, the improved requirements should not already be obsolete, having been overtaken by events.

S4S: What is your message to industry stakeholders for enhancing safety performance onboard containerships?

The sometimes catastrophic fires of the past, which have led to the loss of lives, vessels and cargo and to immeasurable environmental damage, should be incentive enough for all stakeholders in the maritime industry to work to fundamentally improve the situation. The costs that will be incurred to achieve these ends will be more than meaningfully invested and are small when considered in relation to the amounts involved in moving cargo around the world.  

Interview with Capt. Uwe-Peter Schieder who is Vice Chair, IUMI Loss Prevention Committee and Loss Prevention Manager, GDV (German Insurance Association)  & Sebastian Kempkawho is Senior Consultant Risk Service Technique & Nautical Science, KA Köln.Assekuranz Agentur GmbH

The views presented are only those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.