Fire Fighting Aboard Ship

1. Fires are one of the most hazardous casualities on any kind of ships because flames spread rapidly, making it difficult to evacuate personnel and passengers.

2. The following factors contribute greatly to the development of the fire in ships’ spaces:

- combustible finishes of corridors, and, first of all, of ceilings;

- absence of fire-resisting and fire-retarding bulkheads and doors dividing the corridor in parts horizontally and deck tiers vertically;

- absence of fire-retarding doors from corridors to the cabins or presence of opened doors;

- air spaces behind ceilings through which the spaces communicate with one other.

3. Under fire conditions trunks arid stairways become a type of a “smoke funnel”. Evacuation and access of people having fire appliances are extremely difficult. Fires originating in accommodation and services spaces spread frequently to the adjoining control stations resulting in failure of the ship’s control equipment.

4. Most dangerous for human life are fires in cargo oil tanks closely arranged to superstructures and deckhouses. The absence of fire insulation, open or damaged side scuttles promote quick travel of the fire, particularly in case of unfavourable wind direction. The spread of fire in cargo oil tanks practically depend entirely on the properties of the carried petroleum product and structural peculiarities of the ship. Most dangerous are fires involving explosions.