Guidance on the discrepancies between standards for marine and land based fixed gaseous fire extinguishing systems.
The findings of MAIB report no 16/2018 highlighted that there were some significant differences between the use and servicing of Marine CO2 fixed gaseous fire extinguishing systems and essentially similar land based systems.
There have also been changes in the safety requirements for land based CO2
systems, and changes to the periodic testing of containers, which had not been replicated for Marine systems.We welcome the FIA’s new guidance regarding the discrepancies in the standards. Adrian Saw, Research & Development Manager who is active in the FIA WGG said:
“Coltraco is extremely proud to see the fire industry’s efforts in striving towards improving and harmonising marine and land-based fire regulations. Some of these differences are due to challenges associated with the environment themselves. Technologies now exist to overcome such challenges. We warmly encourage the industry to accept new technologies that would improve overall fire systems maintenance standards.”TESTING FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS
Page 3, Chapter 2: Contents verification for CO2 performed by ultrasonic liquid level measurement Page 4, Chapter 2: For marine vessels to meet the more frequent container contents inspection specified by land based regulations, it is therefore recommended that ultrasonic liquid level indicators be considered Page 4, Chapter 2: The frequency of contents verification in the marine standards should at least match the land based standards requirement (every 6 months), or consideration be given to exceed it, to account for the conditions in a marine environment
TESTING ROOM INTEGRITY
Page 8, Chapter 9: An integrity test should be carried out during system commissioning and a visual inspection of the enclosure is required every 12 months to assess for new penetrations, or changes which could affect the integrity of the protected enclosure. Use of alternative technologies to complement visual inspection, such as ultrasound, may be considered.
