"Tow Boat Fire Safety"
Towboat Fire Safety
Letter to the Editor
"The Waterways Journal"
May 17, 2002
Reprinted by Permission of the Author and "The Waterways Journal"
by John P. Colletti
The towboats that perform their work of moving barges throughout our inland rivers are, for the most part, beautifully designed, built and equipped for their intended purpose. To quote from John Ruskin’s (1819-1900) The Shipbuilder, "Take it all in all, a ship of the line is the most honorable thing that man, as a gregarious animal, has ever produced. Into that he has put as much of his human patience, common sense, forethought, experimental philosophy, self-control, habits of order and obedience, thoroughly wrought handiwork, defiance of brute elements, careless courage, careful patriotism and calm expectation of the judgment of God, as can be put into a space 300 feet long and 40 feet broad.
Oceangoing ships are "inspected vessels." It is understandable that American seagoing ships must be regulated and inspected by the United States Coast Guard, for the ships and their crews are subject to the perils of the sea as well as man-made perils. Safety is the underlying theme. No less important is the safety of those who sail on the towboats on our inland rivers.
These towboats are considered "uninspected vessels." However, there are specific requirements for these "uninspected" vessels. See Title 46CFR Subchapter C, parts 24-27. Most of these requirements pertain to fire fighting and life saving equipment. Title 33CFR has additional navigation requirements. The Coast Guard offers a CTVEP (Cooperative Towing Vessel Examination Program) which is aimed at helping towing vessel owners come into compliance with existing as well as new or emerging safety requirements. Recently, there have been new requirements for radar and fire detection and control systems. The fire detection system consists of sensors throughout the boat. A fire would trigger an alarm and light in the pilothouse that gives an immediate indication of the location of the fire. This regulation allows the owner five years to install a fixed fire extinguishing system to complement the detection system. Shutting off fuel to the main engines and auxiliary engines (generators) is also a new requirement. I believe that shutting down engineroom ventilation in case of an engineroom fire is also required.
Remember, too, that there are pollution regulations that, in addition to prohibiting the discharge of oil into the waterways, require polluters to pay huge cleanup costs. Provisions exist in the regulations for the imposition of large fines and for the potential for criminal prosecution.
In my work as a marine surveyor performing towboat condition surveys, I am frequently confronted with the realization that Coast Guard regulations and EPA regulations and the "thinking man’s" notion of safety are at odds with each other. On the one hand, river towboats are considered "uninspected vessels" subject to limited regulations. The Coast Guard is interested in crew safety. But there are no regulations pertaining to their design and construction. This leaves a considerable weakness in the quest for safety. Towboats with non-watertight transverse bulkheads are an example. With a sizable leak in one compartment, the entire boat is in jeopardy. Some will argue that that is what bilge pumps are for. I beg your pardon. I find that some owners have either removed the bilge pumps or have forbidden the crews to use them. Why? Because pumping bilges over the side might result in pollution, heavy fines and criminal prosecution.
How do the small operators deal with slops and oily bilges? I find that they allow oily bilge water to accumulate until they can arrange for a vacuum truck to evacuate the bilges. This is inviting a disaster by reducing the vessel’s stability. Sometimes crews use electric submersible bilge pumps to pump oily water into barrels ashore. Others pump into holding tanks. If there is a massive leak in the hull (due to a grounding or collision), a void compartment or the engine can flood rapidly. A fixed electric bilge pump of substantial capacity (say 3000 gallons per minute) is recommended. If this pump is properly valved, it can also serve as the fire pump, taking suction from the sea chest. This practice is usually discouraged because a mistake could be made wherein the pump might take suction from the bilges and deliver oily bilge water to the fire.
Some boats have dual-purpose bilge and fire pumps. Therefore, the removal of the bilge pump also removes the fire pump. Some small boat owners have no fire pump capability at all. Instead, they have a deck washdown pump that dribbles water through a garden hose. Often, I find that there are no hydrants on deck; no fire hose stations. And where fire hose racks once were, there are no hoses. There is this lackadaisical attitude toward fire safety, as if "it can’t happen here."
On many boats, portable fire extinguishers are located where they cannot be easily reached in case of a fire in that space. They should be strategically located outside the space in order to be useful.
In many boats, the exhaust piping from the main and auxiliary engines are lagged (insulated) but no attention is paid to the turbochargers or flexible connections to the uptakes. A broken fuel line can squirt directly onto these extremely hot (700oF to 1000oF) fixtures resulting in a roaring sustained fire. Without a fixed fire fighting system in the engineroom, fighting this type of fire is nearly impossible. Using the newly required fuel shutoffs will eventually shut down the main engines and generators. Then there is no electricity to power the fire pump or bilge pump.
What I am most interested in is getting people to think about the things I mentioned above. You need a fixed electric bilge pump and suction piping from all void compartments. You need a separate electric centrifugal fire pump of high capacity and fire hoses and nozzles mounted in racks on deck to be able to fight a fire at any location on the boat in the first five minutes after detection.
A fixed fire extinguishing system for the engineroom would extinguish the fire and keep the crew safe. If you are a small operator or a large towing company, please use the "thinking man’s" approach to boat safety.
John P. Colletti
Pittsburgh, PA
