Ships engine rooms are very susceptible to fires and explosions, either

inside the engines in the actual engineroom. Fortunately there are

methods available to combat these hazards such as normal hand held fire
extinguishers and seawater hydrants & hoses, with CO2 or mist injection to
engine spaces.

The ships enginerooms are the usual sources of shipboard fires either
from a fire in the engineroom, or an engine internal fire or explosion and
subsequent fire. The main portable means of fire fighting equipment used
in the enginerooms are still the different types of hand held extinguishers,
which are located throughout the engineroom at different levels.

a.Dry powder
b.CO2
c. Water
d.Foam

Seawater is supplied to the firewater hydrants and sprinkler system by the

seawater service pumps or in a loss of power situation by the emergency
fire pump.

A relatively new piece of equipment is the aqueous film forming foam

(AFFF) which sprays activated foam at the source of the fire.

To fight the internal engine fires such as scavenge fires, CO2 or water mist
can be injected into the scavenge space. Crankcase explosions often lead
to fires and again the same method of fighting the fire using CO2 can be
employed.

In this article we look at the different types of engineroom fires, their

prevention and control and the protection clothing and breathing apparatus
used by the dedicated fire fighting team.

The Causes
The causes of engineroom fires can usually be traced back to a lack of
maintenance or bad watchkeeping practices (see my article on
watchkeeping duties). They are usually caused by fuel spills, overheating
components or careless use of electric welding or gas brazing gear.

Oil Spills

It is imperative to combat the risk of engineroom fires by maintaining the

fuel and lube oil systems, more so on diesel engined ships than steam
turbines although I have had a few hairy oil-fired boiler room moments
where the donkey man has used sawdust to mop up burner oil spills,
instead of sand from the old red-painted sand bucket. There must be
constant vigilance against leaking oil of any type, pipes and unions
especially. Any leaking or damaged fuel pipe should be reported to the
senior engineer immediately. There is not much you can do about oil
spraying onto a hot exhaust, but engineroom housekeeping is another
matter, being something we can all participate in.

Engineroom Housekeeping

The engineroom should be kept clean and tidy, free from inflammable
materials such as wooden crates, cardboard boxes, oily rags and paper.
Any oil spills cleaned up immediately and the source logged. An
engineroom No Smoking Policy should be kept enforced which should stop
people stubbing out their fag ends in the sand bucket.

Repairs

The repair of components by welding and brazing is common practice in

ships enginerooms; however both are potential fire hazards, due to the
arcing of the welding rod and the open flame on the brazing torch tip.
There is also the additional hazard when welding where the ensuing
molten metal can fall down through several floors into the bilges. It is
therefore imperative that where possible the component for repair should
be brought to the engineroom workshop. If this is not possible, then a fire
retardant blanket should be laid under the component to be welded or
brazed, with a fire watcher employed to keep and eye on the proceedings,
with a set of extinguishers to hand.

Engineroom Sprinkler System

This should be of the more modern type of water nozzles which actually
supply a fine mist, rather than a flow of water. These systems cover of
different areas of the engine room and control room, but not the
switchboard or the electrical generating component on the power
generators. The sprinkler system can be operated automatically by
sensors or manually by the engineer. This starts the water booster pump
and opens up the compressed air supply which can be from dedicated high
pressure air bottles or the engineroom air supply.

As we all know water is not normally used on oil fires but, because fine
mist is injected into the area it not only starves the fire of oxygen, but also
dissipates the smoke.

Engineroom Fire Extinguishers

There are four main types of fire extinguishers all coloured red nowadays,
with a different coloured band around the top of the body, denoting which
type of extinguisher it is. They are operated by removing the protective pin
from the trigger and smartly pulling the trigger.

Fire extinguishers are usually stored in a container together in a group of

four; one of each type the containers being positioned at high fire risk
locations.

The four types are,

e.Dry Powder Fire Extinguisher it has a black band around the body and
is used for extinguishing electrical and liquid fires.
f. Foam Fire Extinguisher this has a yellow band around the body and is
used for extinguishing oil fires.
g.Water Fire Extinguisher this has a red band contained between two
thin white bands around the body. It is used to extinguish paper,
wood and cloth.
h.CO2 Fire Extinguisher this has a black band around the body and is
 used to extinguish electrical and liquid fires.
Remember, only the Dry Powder and CO2 extinguishers can should be
used on electrical fires.

Fire Hydrants and Hoses

These are positioned throughout the engine room; a fire axe is sometimes
alongside the fire hoses. The hydrant valves should be opened; hoses run
out and discharged to the bilges at regular intervals to ensure operation.

Aqueous Film Forming Foam

Known as AFFF and (pronounced A triple F) was developed in the sixties

and is a great innovation to firefighting not only in ships enginerooms, but
on oil and gas platforms worldwide. AFFF is supplied in its own containers
and added to aa AFFF storage tank and is operated by pressurised
seawater. The seawater mixes with the specialist liquid and exits the 11/2"
rubber hose through a brass nozzle as a pressurised film of thick, viscous
foam. This is directed to the base of the fire, quickly smothering the flames
and dissipating the heat, smoke and fumes.