Dousing the flames: what should be done to prevent fires on container ships?

Dousing the flames: what should be done to prevent fires on container ships?
Joe Baker 7 September 2018

Traditional precautions against container ship fires are failing to protect crews and cargoes. What is causing fires on-board container vessels, and what should be done to prevent this from a regulatory and practical standpoint?

In March, the Maersk Honam container vessel was sailing hundreds of miles south-east of Salalah, Oman, when it erupted into flames. Nearly two months later, it was dragged into port at Dubai, embers still flickering in the hold. Of the 27 seafarers who had been on-board when the fire struck, 22 were able to abandon ship. The remaining five never returned.

This abject tragedy was only the latest out of a string of many container ship fires that have plagued the maritime industry in recent times. Other shocking incidents in the last five years occurred on-board the MSC Daniela, CMA CGM Rossini and the Hanjin Green Earth.

These disasters have reopened the conversation about the difficulties of preventing and extinguishing fires on the open sea. In an era when ships are larger than they have ever been before, seafarers are often ill-equipped to monitor and contain fires themselves, leaving the task to tugboats that can take days or weeks to arrive. Each failed attempt presents a sizeable environmental, financial and, most importantly, human cost.

A number of marine insurers, including the International Union of Marine Insurers (IUMI), Allianz, the Swedish Club and DNV GL have spoken out about the industry’s failure to address containership fires. However, for a number of reasons, they face an uphill struggle.

Misdeclared cargo

The cause of the Maersk Honam fire is currently the subject of an ongoing investigation. Nevertheless, evidence from previous incidents points to hazardous cargo being misdeclared as a primary factor.

Introduced more than half a century ago, the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code governs the carriage of materials deemed hazardous on cargo vessels. Based on 2016 figures, the International Cargo Handling Coordination Association estimates that 5.4 million containers are packed with dangerous goods (DG) every year.

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