Fixed Extinguishing Systems News

Australia's national transport safety investigator is calling out inadequate international vessel fire safety standards and regulations in the wake of a 2018 bulk carrier fire that took five days to contain and extinguish.The 202 meter, Australian flagged self-unloading bulk carrier Iron Chieftain was discharging its cargo of dolomite at Port Kembla, New South Wales in the early hours of June 18, 2018 when friction, probably from a failed bearing, generated enough heat to ignite a rubber conveyor belt in the C-Loop internal cargo handling space.

Marine fires have been some of the toughest fires for anyone to fight. Whether it’s a fire on your own boat, or a vessel you are escorting or working with you will need to know what you are doing if you wish to operate safely. Marine Firefighting Inc. has been training mariners as well as land-based firefighters to deal with all types of marine fires for more than 17-years. Much of our mariner training dealt with work boats built with powerful firefighting pumps and fire monitors used to deal with liquefied natural gas (LNG) ships and offshore facility fires.

If you think training is expensive; try ignorance. In the ensuing years following the Exxon Valdez disaster, the maritime industry has made great strides in training mariners to prepare for, respond to and mitigate a multitude of emergencies aboard vessels. For example, the environmental performance of the marine industry itself has all but eliminated much of the oil that formerly entered the water through marine error or equipment failures. Nevertheless, the incidents with vessels that do occur, large and small, bring into question the effectiveness of the training.