Yantian Express visualized January 15, 2019 in theAtlantic Ocean Photo: Cameron Brunick

The International Union of Marine Insurance claims it’s time to do something about it to resolve a disconcerting variety of containership fires happening in 2019.

So much this year, the containership market has actually seen a variety of fires, consisting of occurrences entailing Yantian Express, APL Vancouver, Grande America, E.R. Kobe as well as KMTC Hong Kong.

Specifically, IUMI is requiring immediate renovation to onboard firefighting systems.

“Fire-fighting capabilities onboard containerships are deficient and we need to see more headway to improve the safety of the crew, the environment, the cargo and the ships themselves,” stated Helle Hammer, Chair of IUMI’sPolicy Forum “Mis and non-declaration of cargo has serious safety implications and is the root cause behind these tragic incidents. There is agreement among experts that the current means of controlling a fire in the cargo hold are of little effect. The safety objectives set out in SOLAS do not seem to be met, and in light of the various recent casualties the time for action is now.”

The IMUI formerly elevated its problems at the IMO’s 101st Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) conference in June 2019, which obtained wide assistance. In 2017, IUMI released a statement of principles to elevate a selection of problems consisting of insufficient fire discovery as well as onboard firefighting systems both on deck as well as under deck, in addition to the demand to change SOLAS.

IUMI is currently requiring extra assistance from flag managements as well as various other stakeholders to bring this problem to IMO’s schedule in 2020.

“Our position paper recommends that firefighting systems should be arranged to segregate the ship into fire compartments where the fire can be isolated to prevent it from spreading,” claimsHammer “Onboard systems could then cool the containers and allow them to burn out in a controlled manner. Fixed monitors to adequately attack the fire and improved fire detection system are further measures proposed to allow for an appropriate response mechanism. Better prevention measures must also address the concerning rise in cargo misdeclaration. We are encouraged to see larger carriers already beginning to crack down on this problem.”