The Scandinavian Star was a passenger ship and ferry with a route between Oslo and Denmark in the 1990's. During one of its routine voyages, a fire broke out on one of the decks. 158 people were killed in the blaze.
The Scandinavian Star was built according to fire safety regulations of the time. Unfortunately, these regulations did not require a fire sprinkler system throughout the ship. There was limited fire sprinkler systems installed in certain areas of the ship, including the car garage, the fire sprinkler system did not cover the entire ship. Firefighters later found that the fire sprinkler system had not been properly maintained, and that the sprinkler heads were plugged with rust.
The fire was started deliberately in a hallway. Passengers died taking shelter in cabins and attempting to escape through the halls to safer areas of the ship. The problem, of course, is that there are no safe areas on a ship when a fire breaks out. Passengers have nowhere to go in case of a fire.
That's why effective fire prevention is so important on seagoing vessels. Investigative officials, in charge with discovering the causes of the fire, strongly recommended that all seagoing vessels be fitted with a fire sprinkler system in the future.
The Scandinavian Star was built according to fire safety regulations of the time. Unfortunately, these regulations did not require a fire sprinkler system throughout the ship. There was limited fire sprinkler systems installed in certain areas of the ship, including the car garage, the fire sprinkler system did not cover the entire ship. Firefighters later found that the fire sprinkler system had not been properly maintained, and that the sprinkler heads were plugged with rust.
The fire was started deliberately in a hallway. Passengers died taking shelter in cabins and attempting to escape through the halls to safer areas of the ship. The problem, of course, is that there are no safe areas on a ship when a fire breaks out. Passengers have nowhere to go in case of a fire.
That's why effective fire prevention is so important on seagoing vessels. Investigative officials, in charge with discovering the causes of the fire, strongly recommended that all seagoing vessels be fitted with a fire sprinkler system in the future.
Today, high velocity water sprays combined with low water discharge rates are changing the way shipboard fires are fought.
The eruption of a fuel fire in the engine room of the cruise ship Nordic Empress was controlled and extinguished expeditiously because of the swift activation of a water mist system designed to protect shipboard machinery spaces. This is the most recent success of high velocity water sprays combined with low water discharge rates.
Known as water mist systems, the technology is being installed on an increasing number of commercial vessels, especially cruise ships, replacing alternatives such as Halon-1301. The Navy is also using a water mist system on its new Amphibious Transport Dock ship, the LPD-17, it was delivered from the Litton Avondale Industries Shipyard in New Orleans in 2003.
Water has been the traditional fire-fighting agent for centuries, but too much water combined with inappropriate fire fighting techniques has had disastrous results.
Traditional water fire-extinguishing systems are based on water applied to a fire from straight hose streams or sprinkler systems. Typically, wet pipe sprinkler systems are activated when heat from a fire melts a fusible link in a sprinkler head allowing water to flow and spray into the area. Other systems, known as dry pipe, have open sprinkler heads and an electrically controlled main supply line valve controlling water flow to all sprinkler heads in the system. Both systems are designed to allow for a maximum volume of water to be discharged onto a fire area, effectively drowning the fire. The disadvantages of traditional water systems are that they can cause substantial damage to areas not directly affected by the flames and, for ships, jeopardize their buoyancy.
to be continued.
