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Poor condition of on-board equipment - DEV imca
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Poor condition of on-board equipment

What happened?

During ‘safety walk arounds’ on one of our members’ vessels, certain equipment was seen to be in poor condition.  In the first case, a fire blanket in the galley; in the second, a portable step ladder.

Fire blanket

A galley fire blanket had been used for fire extinguishing and packed away again, but no incident report was made of a fire having taken place.  It was clear that the fire blanket had not been inspected for a long period of time.

  • What were the causes – procedures not followed:
    • our members’ internal instructions for master’s inspections and fire prevention requirements had not been followed
    • there had been no weekly inspection of fire blankets conducted by crew despite procedural requirements to do so;

  • What actions were taken:
    • when conducting any inspection, ensure that all items on the inspection checklist are thoroughly checked – not ‘just a tick box exercise’
    • any incident (such as a small fire in this case) however trivial should be reported immediately
    • further inspections of all on-board safety equipment was indicated in this case.

Step ladder

A damaged ladder was observed as in use on the vessel deck during vessel walk around.  Further inspection revealed another ladder in similar condition in regular use.

  • What went wrong:
    • signs of corrosion on ladder
    • plastic support missing on bottom of ladders legs;
  • What were the causes – procedures not followed:
    • no regular and pre-use inspection of ladders established on-board
    • fall prevention requirements not followed: inspect all ladders and lifting equipment regularly and perform the required maintenance;

  • What actions were taken:
    • all on-board ladders to be inspected, numbered and labelled on a monthly basis
    • all damaged ladders to be removed from vessels and replacements ordered
    • crew to be refreshed on the importance of conducting pre-start checks on all ladders.

Members may wish to refer to:

Safety Event

Published: 30 January 2020
Download: IMCA SF 03/20

Relevant life-saving rules:
IMCA Safety Flashes
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IMCA Safety Flashes summarise key safety matters and incidents, allowing lessons to be more easily learnt for the benefit of all. The effectiveness of the IMCA Safety Flash system depends on Members sharing information and so avoiding repeat incidents. Please consider adding safetyreports@imca-int.com to your internal distribution list for safety alerts or manually submitting information on incidents you consider may be relevant. All information is anonymised or sanitised, as appropriate.

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