Summary:
At 21.15 on 11 February 2023, a fire broke out in the engine room of the roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry Stena Europe while on passage from Rosslare, Ireland, to Fishguard, Wales. The fire caused significant damage to in the engine room but there were no injuries to people or damage to the environment. The fire was extinguished by the crew.
The key safety issues identified were:
- The fire ignited on a main engine when pressurised fuel from a loose fuel pipe connection sprayed onto a high temperature exhaust pipe. Neither of the designed protections against fuel fires (spray shielding on fuel pipes and insulation of hot surfaces) were effective.
- The original fuel pipe connections had previously been identified as a system weakness, but the manufacturer’s recommended modifications had not been fitted to the engine.
- The ship’s crew were insufficiently trained to inspect engine fuel systems.
- The temperature measuring equipment used by the crew to monitor the engine exhaust insulation did not effectively identify any hot spots
Safety recommendations:
A recommendation has been made to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to submit a paper to the IMO proposing the introduction of a requirement for the use of thermographic equipment to identify exposed high temperature surfaces. Recommendations have also been made to Stena Line Ltd to: review the existing defect reporting system; provide training to improve equipment inspections; promulgate details of this accident to the ships in its fleet; and introduce the use of thermal imaging cameras for the identification of exposed high temperature surfaces.
Viewers can read the full report here below:
