Engine Room Fires & Local Fire Extinguishing Systems

抄録

10% of fatalities at sea are caused by fires.
Rated by the cost of insurance claims, fires are in third place, only exceeded by grounding/collision (severe consequences) and machinery damage (high frequency) .
Statistics gathered from 1992 to 1997 show that 63% of all reported fires are engine room fires. The same trend is seen for the period 1998 to 2001. These fires are often very serious fires and may disable the vessel for longer periods. A rough estimate of the related cost of an engine room fire is about £ 100.000 per minute of fire.
Of all reported engine room fires, more than 50% are caused by oil leakages onto hot surfaces. SOLAS 2001 consolidated edition requires that surfaces with temperature exceeding 220 degrees C shall be insulated or shielded.
To reduce or extinguish fires at an early stage without endangering people and to reduce the consequences of an erroneous release, there is a requirement in SOLAS 2000 amendments Ch.II-2, Reg.10.5.6 for a local application fire extinguishing system. The system shall be of the water spray or low expansion foam type and be capable of both automatic and manual release from both inside and outside of the machinery space. Automatic release is initiated by a separate fire detection system covering the high fire risk objects in the machinery space as separate sections. Activation of the system shall not cause shut down of main or auxiliary engines or malfunction of essential electrical systems. It may also be noted that there is no requirement for redundant water pumps, nor for a redundant power supply.
To further improve the fire safety in machinery spaces, DNV has developed a class notation called F-M that has requirements in addition to SOLAS. The focus is on:
-prevention of fires through requirements to the oil systems and separation and requirements for thermo scanning of hot surfaces.
-quick response to fires through enhanced fire detection and confirmation of fires by use of CCTV system.
-reliability of fire fighting systems through robust local extinguishing, reliable main fire fighting system and well specified fireman's equipment.