Fire Protection Installations on Ships. A Review of the State of the Art

In order to achieve a rapid and effective extinguishing of fires on board ships, the IMO has approved functional requirements, to be met by fixed fire extinguishing systems. They are included in rule 10 of Chapter II-2 of the International Convention for the safety of human life at sea, SOLAS 1974 (as amended). Through the approval of the International Code of Fire Safety Systems, the IMO intends to give international standards on technical specifications of fire protection systems. In addition to the general technical specifications for all vessels, it establishes other specific requirements in the IQC, the IGC, and others. These mandatory legislative documents, based on a previously calculated system of direct assignment of the different fire extinguishing means, present important technical errors and omissions, which make the installations slow and ineffective. In a calculated technical system, the designer of the facilities must respect the minimum requirements established by the IMO. But that will only achieve the intended speed and efficiency when planning, designing and maintaining the different fire extinguishing systems, follow the reference calculation standards in their field through EN standards of the European Committee for Standardization, NFPA standards of the National Fire Protection Association and others. In this work, the state of the art of fire extinguishing facilities is reviewed, proposing improvements contemplated in specific standards and the skilled work of prestigious technicians in this type of facility.