Fire in the engine room

  • Safety Flash
  • Published on 1 June 2020
  • Generated on 3 April 2025
  • IMCA SF 17/20
  • 2 minute read

What happened?

A vessel suffered a fire in the engine room. The incident occurred after the vessel was leaving port during the hours of darkness in calm weather.

The vessel was making around 5-6 knots, when the fire panel indicated fire on one of the diesel generators. Flames and smoke were visible in the engine room.

A second generator started automatically after 20 sec. The crew were all mustered safely.

The Flexifog fire extinguisher system was released in the engine room.

Two minutes later a firefighting team entered the engine room, at which time flames and smoke were still visible. After six minutes the fire was extinguished by a combination of firefighting team and the Flexifog system.

The vessel maintained its position and all personnel evacuated to deck. There were no injuries. The generator that caught fire suffered significant damage.

What went wrong?

Bearing failure in engine.

What were the causes?

Investigation showed that the failures could not have been related to lack of maintenance.

There was a suspected potential fault in engine components which were replaced during the recent engine overhaul.

Lessons learned

The key learning was that the Flexifog fire extinguisher system and the well-drilled fire-fighting team prevented escalation to a potential critical situation.

Several actions were taken by the marine crew to avoid the fire spreading on the vessel.

Our Member’s client was impressed with the professional way in which the marine crew handled the situation.

Actions

To prevent potential fire spreading – make sure that the marine crew:

  • is drilled in emergency training.
  • is familiar with the vessel and the fire shut down mechanisms.
  • has a water mist system – this can be crucial to avoid the fire spreading.

Latest Safety Flashes:

Incidents occurring during decommissioning

IMCA has put together a summary of incidents relating to decommissioning.

Read more
LTI: rope under tension moved and hit person’s hand

A member of the crew suffered a serious hand injury when struck by a rope under tension.

Read more
Injuries during lifting operations

A member reports two separate lifting activities involving failure of lifting equipment and resulting in minor injuries to nearby personnel.

Read more
Finger injury during manual handling

An IMCA’s members’ utilities supplier in the United States reports a serious finger injury during manual handling

Read more
Acetylene gas explosion

There was a small explosion and fire when crew were working on an oxy-acetylene system.

Read more

IMCA Safety Flashes summarise key safety matters and incidents, allowing lessons to be more easily learnt for the benefit of the entire offshore industry.

The effectiveness of the IMCA Safety Flash system depends on the industry sharing information and so avoiding repeat incidents. Incidents are classified according to IOGP's Life Saving Rules.

All information is anonymised or sanitised, as appropriate, and warnings for graphic content included where possible.

IMCA makes every effort to ensure both the accuracy and reliability of the information shared, but is not be liable for any guidance and/or recommendation and/or statement herein contained.

The information contained in this document does not fulfil or replace any individual's or Member's legal, regulatory or other duties or obligations in respect of their operations. Individuals and Members remain solely responsible for the safe, lawful and proper conduct of their operations.

Share your safety incidents with IMCA online. Sign-up to receive Safety Flashes straight to your email.