Paris MoU Prelimenary Findings of CIC on Fire Safety Systems

Fire safety on board ships is still serious concern. Recent events have demonstrated that a fire on board a ship can be potentially devastating and can seriously affect the safety of those on board. Preliminary results from the Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on Fire Safety Systems, carried out between 1 September 2012 and 30 November 2012 in the Paris MoU region show important trends on the current situation onboard merchant vessels.

More specifically the CIC questionnaire was completed during 4,014 inspections on 3,985 individual ships and tevealed that:

1. 103 ships were detained over the 3 month period as a direct result of the CIC for deficiencies related to Fire Safety Systems. 
   
2. 64% of all ships detained in the three month period were detained for fire safety related issues.
3. Problem areas included fire pumps and its pipes, fire fighting equipment and appliances, and the fire control plan.

Fire safety has been in the top 5 of most frequently encountered categories of deficiencies during inspections for years. Reason enough for the Paris MoU to concentrate attention to this area during a CIC. “The outcome of the CIC shows that fire safety is clearly not top priority on every ship and that is a serious concern”, says Richard Schiferli, Secretary General of the Paris MoU on PSC.

During the campaign the following types of vessels have been inspected:

1. General cargo/multi-purpose ships with 1,347 (34%) inspections. 59 ships were detained  (57%.)
2. Bulk carriers with 766 (19%) inspections. 14 ships weer detained (14%).
3. Container ships with 422 (11%) inspections. 9 container ships were detained.
4. Chemical tankers with 343 (9%) inspections.
5. Oil tankers with 308 (8%) inspections.

51% of the detained ships were 25 years or older.

Analysis of the recorded deficiencies shows that most deficiencies relate to:

1. Fire pumps and its pipes (13%).
2. Fire fighting equipment and appliances (11%).
3. Fire control plan (9%).

Most inspections were carried out on ships under the following flags

• Panama with 445 (11%) inspections.
• Liberia with 308 (8%) inspections.
• Malta with 306 (8%) inspections.
• Antigua and Barbuda with 282 (7%) inspections.

The flags with the highest CIC-topic related detention rate were:

• Dominica with 28,6% (2 CIC-topic related detentions during 7 inspections).
• Sierra Leone with 21,2% (7 CIC-topic related detentions during 33 inspections).
• Togo with 18,2% (4 CIC-topic related detentions during 22 inspections).

The background for this CIC was that, as an average for the last 8 years, deficiencies related to fire safety systems account for 14% of the total number of deficiencies within the Paris and Tokyo MoU. The CIC was a joint campaign with the Tokyo MoU. Other MOU’s have followed the same routine during the campaign.

The detailed results of the campaign will be further analysed and findings will be presented to the 46th meeting of the Port State Control Committee in May 2013, after which the report will be submitted to the International Maritime Organization.

Source: Paris MoU