Page 61 - Layout 1

P&I Claims Analysis

Ship ires

Eric Mullen

As with any ire, ship ires can happen almost anywhere and at any time. Sometimes a Master has little or no control of a
ire breaking out; imagine, for example, a ire following a collision or pirate attack. The most common areas where ires occur

are engine rooms, accommodation blocks and in cargo, which will be mentioned in turn.

1. Engine room iresThere is a SOLAS requirement for exhaust systems,

By far the most common cause of ires in engine rooms isand other hot surfaces, to be adequately shielded, but

fuel spray igniting on hot surfaces. Oil spray often occursthis is predominantly a matter of preventing injury and in
practice it is dificult to make coverings around exhausts
at puriiers, main engines and most commonly, at auxiliary
engines. The fuel spray can be heavy fuel oil, diesel or and turbochargers liquid tight when subjected to prolonged

lubricating oil. Although fuel lines and couplings can fail exposure to large quantities of liquid. Moreover, ine mists
of hot liquid fuels can be ignited by other sources, such
spontaneously, it is more common that the leak occurs shortly
after maintenance has been carried out, or while being carried as sparks or hot surfaces in electrical equipment. Hence,

out. This can range from simply turning a three-way valveprevention is best directed to not having the leak in the irst
place, and is best served by ensuring that the engineers and
on a fuel ilter the wrong way, at the wrong time, to over-
tightening or under-tightening nuts or physically damaging oilers are properly trained and supervised when undertaking

pipelines. Spray from engine room equipment can be at their work and that work is checked on completion. This
good maintenance practice should, of course, extend to work
relatively high pressures and can spray many metres from the
source of the leak. Almost invariably there is a hot exhaustbeing carried out on all heat producing equipment in the
engine room. Boilers and incinerators, for example, also have
or some other hot surface nearby. Typically, these can be at a
that heady mix of available fuel and a good ignition source.
temperature greater than the auto ignition temperature of the
sprayed liquid, resulting in a ire.

59www.swedishclub.com