FIRE IN DRY DOCK AND DOCUMENTED PROCEDURE

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Chapter 8 of ISM code deals with emergency preparedness and requires the company to identify potential emergency shipboard situation and establish procedure to respond to them. It also requires the company to establish programs for drills and exercise to prepare for emergency action. Fire on board a ship is also a documented procedure in the SMS of every company. But during dry dock the procedure will be changed.
FIRE DURING DRY DOCK DOCUMENTED PROCEDURE:-
Due to nature of dry dock repair activities, it is a challenging task to device a fire fighting plan that will satisfactorily operate under all condition. Thus, necessarily in such a situation a suitable fire fighting plan should be able to frequent changes and thus should be highly flexible in nature.

To prepare a documented system following should be kept in mind:-
1) Earlier primary station may not be suitable for muster due to repair work
2) Vessel general emergency alarm may be under repair
3) Ship’s crew may have gone for a shore leave
4) Fire fighting appliances may be gone ashore for servicing
Therefore documented procedure prior entry to dry dock will include carrying out a risk assessment for contingencies specific to dry dock. Master should make it clear to dry dock personnel that its his responsibility to take suitable precaution against fire, testing and certification of space prior to any hot work. Documented action plan should be drawn along with yard personnel and agreed upon by ship and shore staff.
In a dry dock the responsibility for carrying out hot work and the associated permit lies with the dock personnel. However ship staff must initiate action against a contingency and co-ordinate response. The documented procedure will be ---
1) The procedure for informing the yard is documented and is to be understood.
2) Number for emergency helpline to be conspicuously displayed
3) Fire lines to be kept charged via shore through ISSC
4) Suitable muster station for all teams to be declared and made aware at beginning of the day along with planning and allocation of the work
5) Status of general emergency alarm to check
6) Officers at management level to be familiar with dock evacuation procedure, and dock emergency plan.
7) Logs of attendance for ship and yard personnel to maintain
KEEPING ABOVE POINTS IN MIND THE REST OF THE PROCEDURE WILL BE SAME LIKE:-
1) Person witnessing fire to shout and inform everybody about nature and location of fire
2) Emergency teams to fight the fire and evacuate casualties
3) Support team to help in evacuation, first aid etc.
4) Technical team to cut necessary electrical supply etc.
ADVANTAGES OF DOCUMENTED PROCEDURE:-
1) Documented plans are ship specific and hence more effective
2) Personal specific responsibilities are delegated and therefore resources can be quickly mobilized
3) Documented procedure helps in quick familiarization
4) Documentation, ship plan etc. help shore personnel to access situation suitably
5) Avoids duplication of efforts, confusion and chaos
6) It reduces damage to property/ and loss of life
7) It helps in insurance claims
8) It helps analyze procedures and enable improvisation
9) Human error due to poor decision making is minimized.
Likewise there are so many contingencies which are covered in ISM and all have documented procedure. Following is the list of some of these contingencies:-
1) Collision
2) Grounding/Stranding
3) Fire
4) Electrical power failure
5) Flooding
6) Steering failure
7) Main engine failure
8) Pollution/ spill
9) Man overboard
10) Heavy weather
11) Helicopter operation
12) Terrorism and piracy
13) Serious injury
Now take another case of oil pollution. In case of pollution the contingency will help in following way:-

Annex 1 of MARPOL requires tankers of 150 GT and other ships of 400 GT and above to have a SOPEP. It is well documented plan devised by experts and is ship specific in nature such that there is no oversight. SOPEP clearly lists out the responsibilities of individual crew member in the event of pollution incident and thereby considerably reduces the response time. A separate SOPEP locker containing equipment for dealing with a pollution incident is demarcated. SOPEP provides master with a list of contacts to approach during a pollution incident. Vessel tank and pipe line diagrams are present in SOPEP to assist in mitigating the pollution. A SOPEP in conjunction with regular drills will greatly reduce the extent of a pollution incident and assist in gaining control over a situation rapidly.

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