The USCG issued guidance on the use of fixed fire pumps in lieu of portable fire pumps on Subchapter C and Subchapter M towing vessels, 65 feet or less. The guidance comes with the Policy Letter 01-19: ‘Equivalency Determination – Fire Pumps for Subchapter C and Subchapter M Towing Vessels’.
Cruise operator RCL, Wärtsilä, and DNV GL announced that Navigator of the Seas will feature the industry’s first fire prevention notation. The class notation F(M-P) identifies key areas for preventing fires in engine rooms based on incident analysis, feedback from surveyors, and best practices from the industry.
According to local reports, a fire broke out in the engine room of cargo vessel Cape Knox, in May 31, while it was berthed at the Poland Avenue Wharf in New Orleans, Louisiana. The fire department deployed fire engines, but the fire smouldered inside a roughly 100-square-foot container near the ship’s engine room. The container was filled with diesel fuel sludge.
In its Safety Digest, UK MAIB focuses on an incident concerning a fire that erupted onboard a vessel while it was sailing through the North Sea. In the beginning the crew was unable to find where the fire took place, as the sensor ‘A010’ was mistaken; Later on, the master detected the fire, which didn’t result to any fatal incidents.
The US Navy published photos from sailors practising their firefighting skills and techniques by battling a simulated fire. All sailors are trained in fire fighting and damage control efforts, as many are the fire incidents taking place onboard vessels.
Being the most recent event in a string of fire tragedies within the last year, ‘Grande America’ was the wake-up call to ship operators, industry insurers and regulators who, have been paying more and more attention to reasons that cause or feed such incidents at sea lately.
After Grimaldi’s Grande Europa caught fire, the company launched an appeal to introduce more stringent controls and regulations on cargo sea transport, not only for rolling units but also for containers. Grimaldi Group requested more controls on car batteries, which often cause short-circuits on board vessels, as well as in port terminals.
Grimaldi’s car carrier, Grande Europa, caught fire off the island of Mallorca, Spain, on May 15, the Spanish sea rescue society informed. The fire on the 51,714 GT ship has been brought under control by three fire fighting ships.
The USCG issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to amend the rules for recreational vessels by moving fire extinguishing equipment standards for recreational vessels from the uninspected vessel subchapter, which includes requirements for both recreational and commercial vessels, to the subchapter applicable only to recreational vessels.
At the first SAFETY4SEA Conference in London, Leif Pentti Halvorsen, VP Products, Kongsberg Digital, explained how a firefighting simulator can become an advanced tool to increase the realism in training to realistically conduct practical exercises to demonstrate and assess competence that is described in the STCW.
