Engine Room Hazard Awareness
The Standard P&I Club is distributing the posters it created, to help those working at sea to identify hazards and understand how they could escalate into serious incidents. Here are the top ten Engine Room Hazards from the poster.
1. Dust bin with overflowing oily rags near a hot running engine: Oily rags are a well-known fire hazard whereby the substances on the rags can ignite due to an exothermic reaction from the nearby hot engine, causing a fire.
2. Missing section of handrail, chain left hanging: The simple, careless act of leaving the chain unhooked is a fall hazard for anyone passing.
3. Load on the chain block exceeds the safe working load: The overloading of the chain block may result in the catastrophic failure of the equipment and injury to the crew.
4. Double-bottom tank sounding pipe non-return device blocked in open position: An engine room may be flooded in the event of a collision or grounding that breaches the double-bottom tank if a sounding pipe non-return valve is blocked in the open position.
5. Fuel oil tank in background with broken sounding glass: The broken sounding glass would allow for the content of the fuel oil tank to be emptied if at the same time the self-closing valve is blocked in open position.
6. Steam leaking in pipe joint: Leaking steam poses a risk of serious burns to crew members working in the engine room.
7. Fuse box open with exposed wires: The exposed wires present the risk of electrocution. Electrical switchboards should always be properly closed and insulation matting provided.
8. Loose floor plating: The missing floor plating may result in a crew member falling into the bilge spaces below the plating, causing serious injury.
9. Engine room lighting damaged: Broken lighting reduces the ability of the crew to work effectively and safely in the engine room, which is a compartment with no natural light source.
10. Engineer walking around engine room listening to iPod: By listening to loud music in the engine room, the crew member risks not being able to respond to a command, alarm or safety critical situation that may arise.
Source: The Standard Club
