FIRESAFE II

The main objective of the EMSA FIRESAFE studies is to improve the fire safety of ro-ro passenger ships by cost-efficient safety measures reducing the risk of ro-ro space fire, with an aim to discuss specific proposals for rule making. Both studies were conducted by Bureau Veritas, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and Stena Rederi.

In 2016, EMSA initiated the first FIRESAFE study in order to investigate cost-efficient measures for reducing the risk from fires on ro-ro spaces with a focus on electrical fire as ignition source as well as fire extinguishing failure. In 2017, following the progress of the first report, EMSA initiated a second study (FIRESAFE II) to investigate risk control options in relation to detection and decision as well as containment and evacuation, following a ro-ro space fire incident on any ro-ro passenger ship. In addition, two full scale tests were also performed, one of which focused on alternative fixed fire extinguishing systems and the other on detection systems in open ro-ro and weather decks.

The five FIRESAFE II reports that can be downloaded below cover the following topics:

- WP1 Final Report, this report presents a Formal Safety Assessment on detection and on decision of extinguishing system activation following a ro-ro space fire incident on any ro-ro passenger ship.

- WP2 Final Report, this report presents a Formal Safety Assessment on containment and on evacuation following a ro-ro space fire incident on any ro-ro passenger ship.

- WP2 Combined Assessment, this report presents the results of the combined assessment of cost effectiveness based on the results from the different parts previously considered separately in FIRESAFE and FIRESAFE II.

- WP3 Final Report, this report presents a review of potential commercially available alternative fire extinguishing systems and their expected performance efficiency, water consumption and estimated installation costs. Additionally, large-scale fire tests were performed for selected systems.

- WP4 Final Report, This report presents available and emerging fire detection technologies for use in open ro-ro spaces and on weather decks. Fibre optic linear heat detection (open ro-ro spaces) and thermal imaging camera (weather deck) were fire tested onboard a test vessel.