to fight real-world fires aboard the academy’s 42-meter (140- foot) training simulator vessel the Gray Manatee, which has four decks and 18 different compartments plus numerous ladder ways and passageways and hatches. Any number of training scenarios can include a single fire, two separate fires, or multiple fires with victims who must be located and removed. Participants are also trained to find different ways to get around on the vessel in order to locate a fire or victim. Mr. Charlock explained “when personnel train on their own ship, it’s not possible to have live fires onboard. They may understand the tactics and strategies but there is no stress involved. When you come to our facility, you have live fire, real smoke, and you’re in a shipboard environment so it’s much more realistic.”
He also points out that with the size of cruise ships
SP Technical Institute uses large-scale fire testing to establish the water application rates for different scenarios
engineer Magnus Arvidson. “There are also new potential fire ignition sources, new types of fuel and batteries.” Mr Arvidson noted the previous requirements for sprinkler
systems were the drencher type that used large quantities of water with sections of open nozzles that covered one 20m length zone at a time. Under those rules, “sprinkler systems are manually activated and have section valves for specified sections of the deck,” he said. However, “the new 1430 circular allows for other types of sprinkler systems such as dry or wet pipe systems, where sprinklers activate automatically one-by- one by the heat from a fire.” The tests revealed a clear relationship between the level of performance and the water application rate: For instance, 15 mm/min (equal to litres per minute per square metre) leads to immediate fire suppression, 10 mm/min will suppress a fire and 5 mm/min will control a fire. Improved performance was achieved at 10 mm/min with a higher operating pressure, e.g. smaller droplets. The high pressure water mist system provided better cooling of the hot combustion gases than did the traditional water spray system because the smaller water droplets evaporate and mitigate heat better than larger droplets. “I’ve been working on this issue for 15 years and I am very
happy we have had these requirements accepted,” said Mr. Arvidson. “To influence this and be part of this change has been very rewarding.” The human fire-fighting part of the equation is also critical.
Training crew to be firefighters is a top priority for cruise companies, reported Cliff Charlock, fire school manager at Resolve Maritime Academy, Inc. in Florida. “They perform a lot more self-evaluation and assessments to make sure their people are doing things right,” he said. The Academy provides fire-fighting classes for all types of vessels. Their four-day MCA Advanced Fire Fighting course meets STCW-95 requirements and also provides special modules for training cruise ship personnel. The first two and a half days are spent in the classroom
where participants learn how to develop a realistic fire plan for their ship, put together a station bill, man their team and respond accordingly when fire breaks out. Topics cover fire chemistry, extinguishing agents, safety equipment, detection systems, hose management, tactics and strategies as well as an overview of personal protection equipment and advanced search and rescue. During the course, participants learn how
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increasing, along with the number of passengers and crew, being prepared to ensure the safety of all onboard is more important than ever. “The good news is that there is much greater emphasis on fire protection and detection systems,” he says. “If you can contain and keep a fire small, then it will stay small and you can usually handle it. It’s when a fire grows and spreads that it becomes a problem. Things don’t always go perfectly when you’re fighting a fire. That’s why you must train often so that when these incidents occur, you know exactly what to do and you are able to overcome them.” Commenting on some recent incidences of fire, Michael
Crye, former vice president of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), now a public and regulatory affairs consultant, said “the Carnival Splendor and Carnival Triumph fires have provided lessons just as the Concordia grounding did that pointed to operational procedures such as evacuation. It is fortunate that the lessons are being learned with relatively small loss of life. The industry has been proactive through CLIA and the requirements of the ISM code to identify best practices and improve, and I expect the industry to work expeditiously toward improvement. They have every motivation to do so.” PST
Resolve Maritime Academy participants learn how to fight fires aboard the academy’s training simulator vessel
Passenger Ship Technology I 2nd Quarter 2013 I 51
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