Safety lessons for Ro-Ro operators
The Standard P&I Club issues Alert regarding fire onboard RORO- passenger ship as follows:
The club has seen many fires on passenger ro-ro vessels in recent years and the MAIB investigation report issued 11/2011 following the fire in June /2010 on the Bahamas registered ro-ro passenger vessel Commodore Clipper highlights a number of lessons that can be learned by operators of these ships.
http://www.maib.gov.uk/publications/investigation_reports/2011/commodore_clipper.cfm
During an overnight passage a fire was detected on the main vehicle deck of the ro-ro passenger vessel Commodore Clipper. The OOW’s initially thought the alarm was a faulty fire detection system, and the vehicle deck water drenching system was not started for 20 minutes.
The fire developed in an curtain-sided refrigerated trailer and the trailer roof shielded the flames from the drenchers and the fire continued to burn. The trailers were tightly stowed; crew had difficulty gaining access to the fire and were unable to extinguish it.
Unprotected cables and pipework running above the fire were damaged and the vessel lost power to forward mooring deck winches and bow thrusters, control of the rudders was disrupted. Loose cargo partially blocked the deck drains and drencher water caused the ship to list. Drenching was stopped while water drained to prevent further risk to the vessel’s stability, but each time it was stopped, the fire grew in intensity.
With tugs standing by the ship entered harbour and berthed alongside. The control circuits for the hydraulics had been burnt out, but were bypassed to allow the stern door to open. It was difficult for personnel to move through the tightly stowed vehicles on the upper vehicle deck to get from the gangway into the accommodation. It was decided that it was safer to leave the passengers on board rather than risk evacuating them by the gangway, lifeboat or marine evacuation system.
The local fire and rescue service (FRS) attempted to gain access to the seat of the fire. The ship’s crew had previously trained with the local FRS on exercises and managers had developed a good relationship. Fortunately, their BA sets were compatible and the FRS agreed to lend the crew additional cylinders so that they could continue to unlash the trailers and guide the firefighters.
Subsequent investigation found that the fire was due to one of the ship’s reefer cables being assembled incorrectly. The reefer cable plugs used ‘insulation displacement connectors’ (IDC) that are meant to speed up assembly by avoiding the need to strip insulation from cable ends. However, the insulation had been stripped away, and as the design relied on the insulation to help secure the cable in place, the connection became loose.
This led to a local high-resistance fault and then arcing in one of the phases. The electrical protection in the vessel’s circuit breakers was not able to detect this fault and heat built up inside the plug until the plastic casing ignited. The socket on the trailer was mounted close to the load-bed where the curtain-side was secured. In tests, the material ignited readily and flames spread quickly.
Safety Lessons
Ro-ro ferry operators
1. Check their vessels’ vehicle decks for critical and vulnerable systems, and take action as necessary to improve their resilience to fire damage.
2. Check all reefer trailer power cables regularly. Consider upgrading existing electrical protection to a system that can detect in-line phase faults and provides residual current detection.
3. React quickly and positively to early indications of fires on vehicle decks. Fires in densely packed vehicle spaces can grow very quickly and, once they are established, can be very difficult to put out.
4. xisting vehicle deck drenching systems may not be able to extinguish the fire; there is not always a requirement for structural fire protection between vehicle decks, heat can transfer through decks and spread the fire very quickly. Boundary cooling is essential.
5. Review emergency response plans and identify the most effective options for vessels that trade on regular routes to obtain assistance from external authorities.
Also Class were recommended to make a submission to IACS to develop a unified requirement to:
Improve the standard of electrical fault protection on systems designed to provide electrical power to road freight units stored on vehicle deck, special category and ro-ro spaces.
The flag state was recommended to:
Make a submission to the IMO to consider a requirement for all existing
ro-ro passenger vessels to be fitted with, or have ready access to, means of determining the effect of damage or entrained water from fire fighting on the vessel’s stability.
submit a paper to the IMO to consider a requirement for all vessels, whose principal means of access is via a single ramp to a vehicle, to assess how an alternative means of pedestrian access to shore could be provided in an emergency.
Source: The Standard P&I Club
