[ AGAINST THE WIND ]
WHEN AN INCIDENT TURNS INTO A TECHNICAL LESSON! by Andrea Pezzini, CEO & Co-Founder of Floating Life
This issue I am taking my lead from the closing of
the investigation into the fire aboard M/Y Kanga, in which I was personally involved. I want to reflect with you all on the importance of fireproof compartmentation design and safety in general aboard. M/Y Kanga was under the 500 GT threshold and so the stairwells legally didn’t need to be made fire-proof, but I specifically requested that this was done. This small modification, which cost-wise didn’t make a big difference to overall price, allowed three crew members to evacuate a lower deck uninjured even though they were right beside the fire. As I walked down into the ruins of the still-smoking hull, I thought back to my request which I had actually made more because of experience than regulations, and reflected upon just how essential our work as designers and supervisors is. These experiences leave a deep mark both professionally and personally but also ensure you make huge strides forward in terms of the safety culture. Finding yourself directing a team of firefighters and technicians who need your input and technical knowledge to avoid damaging the
environment and injuring people, means you get firsthand experience of the problems that arise in an event like that and learn from them. After saving people, pollution is the most complicated issue to tackle. When a fire is extensive and has taken hold in the superstructure, the bridge and the quarters, finding a way to empty the diesel tanks without polluting is complicated. Even having to empty the dozens of tonnes of salt water pumped aboard by the firefighters in an attempt to put out the first isn’t easy. Then when access to the bilges is gunged up with detritus and you can’t find a way to get to them in the smoke and dark, you start feeling discouraged. In such cases, the hull’s stability is compromised too by the excess water and if the boat has full diesel tanks, you just have to act quickly. But A-60 structural fire protection in a stairwell won’t add impossible amount to the cost of a vessel nor will structural metal tubing running from the bilges to the main deck so that they can be emptied easily in an emergency. The report published by Transport Malta explains it all so that everyone can learn from this kind of incident.
Obviously I hope that designers heed these words because otherwise I will be shouting into the wind!
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