ENGINEERS NOSE WINS A fire was successfully contained despite the automatic fire detection system not activating after an engineer smelled and noticed smoke. NARRATIVE A large, newly built container ship was on passage when an engineer noticed smoke coming from the hatch covers, just forward of the accommodation. The general alarm was immediately sounded, followed by a message on the public address system. Hold ventilation was shut down and emergency parties mustered, some of them going directly to the area of the deck by the hold access hatch. Two crew members entered the hold, wearing self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) and carrying a fire hose. The fire was found to be centred on a refrigerated container. The power supply cable to the unit was unplugged and the two men then requested portable fire extinguishers, which they used to extinguish the fire. The chief engineer, also wearing SCBA, joined them and a cooling water spray was used to cool the affected containers. The fire was confirmed out. Ventilation was then restarted and the smoke cleared. An examination found the fire was probably started by the overheating of a coiled power supply cable to a refrigerated container. This was probably aggravated by it being next to the discharge of the units compressor. LESSONS - The vessel carried the required four sets of SCBA. Before the smoke cleared, three men were in the hold, leaving only one SCBA spare. Before committing three SCBAs to an incident, thought should be given as to how one person, wearing the single remaining SCBA, could recover any casualties unaided. - The fire was discovered only after an engineer saw smoke coming from the hatch. The automatic fire detection system did not activate. Later tests showed the system did function, but only after the sampling lines had been blown through. - The crew had become alarm weary due to frequent false alarms. The master prudently followed this general alarm with a voice announcement, to make it clear to the crew that this was not a practice or a false alarm. - In their enthusiasm to help, a number of the crew went directly to the area by the hold access hatch, rather than to their designated muster station. This generated some confusion and caused a delay in getting a reliable head count. Source: UK MAIB
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 13:48:13 +0000
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