- With onboard fire on container ships, the losses are too high and often lead to tragic consequences.
- Box ship industry working together in tackling a major safety issue for ships and crew.
- Hazardous or dangerous cargo being mis-declared or not properly identified leads to onboard fire risk.
- Carriers and forwarders have warned shippers of the potential consequences of hazardous cargo being mis-declared.
- ABS and the Cargo Incident Notification System (CINS) to develop a risk-based approach to stowing dangerous goods on container vessels.
The box ship industry seems to work together in tackling a major safety issue for ships and crew. The LoadStar recently published a post written by Gareth Burton, American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) vice president for technology.
He details the two new initiatives taken by the box shop industry in tackling safety issues. Here’s an excerpt from that article.
Tragic consequences from onboard fire
According to Gareth Burton, the box ship industry has taken two initiatives by working together to tackle a major safety issue for ships and crews.
Onboard fire on container ships always make the headlines as the losses are too high and often lead to tragic consequences.
What is the reason for such fires?
Hazardous or dangerous cargo being mis-declared leads to onboard fire risk. Dangerous goods that are not properly identified or accounted for poses high risk to the ship’s safety and crew onboard.
The problem is so bad that carriers and forwarders have warned shippers of the potential consequences of hazardous or dangerous cargo being mis-declared.
The industry is now acting to manage the risks and work collaboratively to improve safety for shippers, carriers and crews.
Initiatives taken by the industry
Two new initiatives demonstrate how classification societies and carriers can better identify the risks of hazardous cargo and how the latest, largest container ships and the smaller vessels can improve fire safety margins in high-risk areas.
Risk identification and reduction
In both cases, the critical issue is risk identification and reduction, an acknowledgement that led ABS and the Cargo Incident Notification System (CINS) to develop a risk-based approach to stowing dangerous goods on container vessels.
CINS to increase supply chain safety
CINS is a box shipping line initiative founded to
- increase safety in the supply chain,
- reduce the number of cargo incidents onboard ships and
- highlight the risks caused by certain cargo and/or packing failures.
The CINS publication, Safety Considerations for Ship Operators Related to Risk-Based Stowage of Dangerous Goods on Containerships, is the product of a collaboration between CINS members, facilitated by ABS, to develop operational guidance.
Guidance from past incidents
Critically, the guidance was developed from key lessons learned, provided by CINS members from past incidents.
It is a risk-based approach that frames goals, functional requirements and strategies associated with dangerous goods stowage to provide practical advice aimed at advancing safety on containerships.
Fire-Fighting Systems guide from ABS
ABS, a trusted technical advisor for the containership sector, has also published its Guide for Fire-Fighting Systems for Cargo Areas of Container Carriers, the first guide of its kind to address firefighting and safety systems of container cargo holds, the location of a series of high-profile fires.
Who can get benefitted?
What Aligned with the core ABS safety mission, the guidance addresses this issue and provides advice for the development of more robust vessel designs that are better suited to address this challenge. The guide is for the use of designers, builders, owners and operators.
What does the guide specify?
The guide specifies the ABS requirements for addressing fire safety in four key areas:
- fire-fighting for containers stowed on deck;
- fire-fighting for containers stowed below;
- fire safety of the deckhouse; and
- container hold flooding as a last-resort measure for fire-fighting.
Protection of crew and the safety cargo hold
These notations address
- early fire detection,
- more efficient fire suppression,
- better protection of crew and
- the safety considerations associated with cargo hold flooding as a means of fire-fighting.
The requirements that go above and beyond current SOLAS and related industry regulations.
More information
Safety Considerations for Ship Operators Related to Risk-Based Stowage of Dangerous Goods on Containerships is available on the CINS Website: www.cinsnet.com.
The ABS Guide for Fire-Fighting Systems for Cargo Areas of Container Carriers is available to download here.
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Source: The LoadStar
