The deadly fires aboard the ferries “Norman Atlantic” just before New Year 2014 and the “Sorrento” in April 2015, prompted an international response from the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) in May 2015. The number of fire incidents on ro-ro passenger vehicle decks had already been examined by the IMO Correspondence Group on Casualty Analysis in 2012, noting that there “is no sign of these (fires) diminishing”1. This trend is also confirmed through accident analysis performed by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA)
While this paper mainly focuses on ro-ro passenger vessels, similar concerns with fires exist also for car carriers. It is also worth noting that damage to the cargo on these vessels can be significant, although the fire itself may be contained.
Marine underwriters have witnessed that the frequency of fires in the car/ro-ro passenger vessel segment is increasing and is currently at a level twice the frequency of fires on most other vessel types. While cargo on other vessels categories are specifically loaded and packaged for carriage by sea, cargo that is rolled off and on a vessel represents a significant roadside fire risk. Although the risk of fire is substantially lower when a car/lorry is in transit than in operation, the high number of negligible risks could add up to a significant risk. More than one per cent of vessels in the car/ro-ro passenger vessel segment experiences a fire every year3. Compared with other causes, fires are often more severe when they occur, resulting in tragic loss of life and costly damage to vessels. Cargo fires are the most frequent type in this segment.
Download the paper:
Related topics
