Abstract
Aim: The purpose of this article is to provide a statistical analysis of sea accidents involving fires. An understanding of causes, which contribute to such accidents, will help to eliminate or minimize such incidents in the future. This may be achieved by the design of proper regulations applicable to sea transport so as to improve the level of safety at sea.
Introduction: The International Maritime Organization (IMO) mentions some incidents, which cause accidents at sea. These include: collision, stranding or grounding, grazing contact, fire or explosion, hull failure or failure of watertight doors and ports, machinery damage, damage to a ship or its equipment, capsizing or listing, loss of position and accidents with lifesaving appliances. Among the listed causes of accidents at sea, in parallel with grounding, collision and grazing contact, an outbreak of fire is the most frequent cause. Every fourth accident is caused by grounding, and nearly every third incident is attributable to a collision with a floating vessel or permanent element of an infrastructure. Whereas every seventh incident leads to a fire. This article provides a detailed statistical analysis of fires, as a cause of accidents at sea.
Methodology: A data analysis was performed on some 400 sea accidents, which occurred during the period 2004–2007. Details were obtained from the Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GISIS) of IMO (http://gisis.imo.org/). Special attention was focussed on findings, which revealed that a fire, a primary event, can cause a secondary incident, such as a collision at sea. It was also found that other incidents can lead to a ship fire. The analysis also entailed an examination of type and age of ship as well as the location at sea where the accident occurred.
Conclusions: A detailed analysis reveals that ship fires are the primary causes of sea accidents rather than secondary incidents. Further analysis revealed that fires occurred most frequently on passenger/car ferries in the open sea. These were vessels, which, at the time of accident were 25-28 years old. Effectively, every seventh fire outbreak culminated in the loss of life and every twentieth fire incident resulted in the pollution of sea caused by leakage of fuel or discharge of transported cargo. Above all, it was established that the most frequent outcome from a fire was damage to the vessel and inability to proceed with the journey.
Keywords: sea transport, accidents at sea, primary events and consequences of accidents
Type of article: review article