In its latest Safety Digest report, UK MAIB published an incident concerning a 70-minute scheduled trip, when after 10 minutes, a small coastal passenger cruiser suffered a main engine failure that resulted in an engine room fire. There were no injuries but the vessel had to be taken out of service.
Sean Dalton, IUMI Cargo Committee Chair and Head of Marine Underwriting NA, Munich Reinsurance America, Inc., and Pascal Dubois, IUMI Loss Prevention Committee Chair and Head of Marine France, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, talk about major fires on cargo ships are turning out to be a rising concern, which often leads to loss of life, damage to the ship and cargo, while it can also have important environmental impact.
TT Club, an international transport and logistics insurer, launched the Cargo Integrity campaign due to the increase of container ship fires and in favour of the safety of the seafarers. Taking the maritime segment of global supply chain, it is estimated that a major container ship fire at sea occurs on average every 60 days, albeit that there have already been four major cargo-related fire incidents in 2019.
ClassNK released a Technical Information aiming to inform that the Cook Islands Maritime Authority has issued a new circular regarding fire fighter’s communication. The circular touches upon the application of the fire fighter’s communication, its stored location, colour and standard criteria.
IMO’s Sub-Committee conducted a meeting on Ship Systems and Equipment (SSE 6), on 4-8 March 2019. The meeting except safe lifting operations, focused on fire safety on ro-ro vessels in order to minimize the danger and the accidents.
Based on drift forecasts, the oil spill from the sunken con/ro Grande America may eventually make it to the shore on France’s Bay of Biscay coastline. What is more, the spill could also reach as near as of La Rochelle on March 18. con/ro Grande America caught fire on March 10. The fire incident resulted to the vessel sinking two days after, on March 12.
The UK Club issued a risk focus on burn injuries onboard vessels. Burns can be some of the most painful and dangerous of personal injuries that may be inflicted both at work and in domestic situations. The potential sources and causes of burn injuries can be varied and may range from a painful but minor inconvenience to life changing injury and death.
A small fire took place on the well deck area of a diving support vessel, as IMCA informs. This happened during diving operations while the vessel was in DP3 mode. The fire was extinguished by the Bosun, using two foam extinguishers. The fire started due to sparks which fell from the starboard funnel into the well deck area and ignited a 1 tonne gabion sack containing cardboard.
IMCA informs of a near miss incident regarding a potential fire, including the overheating of oil in a frying pan. The fire was noticed as one of the engine room crew members came into the galley and noticed smoke coming from the oil which was in the pan. The galley crew were not aware of the function of the temperature sensor elements inside the deep-fryer, nor of the potential consequences if those sensor elements were in the wrong place.
The US Coast Guard (USCG) issued an alert informing that deficiencies related to firefighting safety and appliances continue to be the leading cause of detentions in the San Francisco area. During the fourth quarter of 2018, there was also an increase in deficiencies that related to missing or unserviceable fireman’s outfits.
