Since 1998, there have been nine serious fires recorded aboard containerships. Fire presents a significant danger to crews, vessels and cargo, of course, and in the case of one vessel, the Hanjin Pennsylvania, resulted in an insurance claim in excess of USD 100 million.
On October 24, DNV hosted a seminar in London to address this complex issue. Knut Dohlie, DNV's containership director, presented the company's tradings on recent boxship fires, including those aboard the Sea Elegance, CMA Djakarta and DG Harmony. According to Dohlie, managing the risk of fire on board such vessels will require companies to invest in improved fire fighting equipment and additional crew training. At present, he said, "measures to fight a fire on deck are virtually non-existent."
Dohlie recommended that companies invest in high capacity pumps and water hoses, and train crews to hose down hatch covers to control fires within containers. He noted that if fires are left to burn out of control, hatch covers often come loose, which can allow the fire to escape to other containers, or worse, the vessel itself. Dohlie was quick to add that while important, such simple measures would be relatively inexpensive, suggesting that an investment of USD 7,000 annually for a 3,500 teu vessel would significantly reduce the risk of a fire raging out of control.
Calls for new regulations
While Dohlie confined his remarks to fire fighting rather than prevention, some representatives of containership companies called for new regulations to police cargoes. Indeed, DNV traced some of the worst fires to undeclared combustible cargoes, such as shipments of the highly volatile calcium hypochlorite, a chemical compound used as a bleach and disinfectant for swimming pools.
Anders Tosseviken, DNV's fire safety surveyor, stated that this chemical was highly unstable. He recommended that calcium hypochlorite be shipped in reefer boxes to keep it cool over long hauls in southern latitudes.
Dohlie has called on containership operators to provide more detailed information before implementing new classification rules or approaching the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). And while he reiterated his concern on this vital safety issue, he reminded the seminar's participants that such fires were relatively rare. "The number of fires on containerships is small," he said, "but when they occur, the consequences can be huge."
For more information contact:
Knut.Dohlie@dnv.com