In the latest report by IMCA, fire was detected on board a ship. The vessel was carrying two deep freezers, which were about to go to a platform, when fire broke out in one of them.
The incident
A vessel was carrying two deep freezers as deck cargo, aimed to be delivered to a platform. They were inside two metal baskets, when a small fire/smoke was observed coming from one of the deep freezers.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
The fire alarm was sounded, causing the crewmembers to gather, starting fire-fighting actions. The crew isolated the electrical supply to the deep freezers, and tackled the fire using a fire extinguisher.
Probable causes
As IMCA reports, three were the main reasons of this small fire:
- The deep freezers were old and showed lack of maintenance;
- The metal baskets did not have any wire grid to circulate the air;
- The incident may have been caused because of over-heating due to poor air circulation between compressor and body of the metal basket.
Lessons learned
The deep freezers should have been placed in such a way in order to allow adequate air circulation during transit.
