94009 Fire in Engine Room, Night

Fire in Engine Room
- Off New Zealand. Night.
- Report No. 94009.

In the early hours of the morning a fire broke out in the engine room of a general cargo vessel. A ship's fire party was organised, donned breathing apparatus and attempted to extinguish the fire which was adjacent to the fuel oil heater. Several attempts were made during the next two hours to extinguish the fire, first with portable foam and dry chemical extinguishers, then with a fire hose before the decision was made to flood the engine room with CO2. Prior to the flooding, the fire had spread to a workshop located one deck above the fuel oil heaters.

With BA capacity exhausted, the master requested assistance from a fire fighting tug through the Coast Station. An advance party of fire fighters arrived by harbour tug within two hours of the request and the main fire fighting party arrived six hours after the initial fire was reported. They entered the engine room, located all the remaining hot spots and extinguished the fire. A continuous fire watch was then maintained until the vessel was safely moored in harbour in the early afternoon.

The subsequent investigation determined that the fire had been caused by a pinhole leak in the fuel oil heater end plate, this allowed oil vapour to escape and be ignited by a nearby defective electrical connection. The fire investigators concluded that if the engineers had been able to secure the flow of fuel to the heater, they would have been able to extinguish the fire or minimise its spread. Too much time was wasted before using the fixed CO2 system, equipment and procedural failures exacerbated the spread of the fire. Areas adjacent to and above the fire should have been checked for hot spots and secondary fires. The ship's fire fighters had not been effective as they had been unable to isolate the heater and fuel. No lives were lost due to the incident but some of the crew suffered from minor smoke inhalation.

"Fire at sea is one of the most feared disasters for the merchant mariner. Only those who have experienced such an event can appreciate its magnitude...... Your success, in fact your very life, may depend on how well you keep your head and do your job. The training that you and your crew have had to manage such an emergency will be the key factor in your response."
- LCDR John D Hooper USCGR Proceedings Sept. 93