Increase Maintenance to Prevent Engine Room Fires - Braemar

BraemarSA has warned that a lack of maintenance has led to a significant increase in engine room fires according to its latest Asia Market Briefing.
 
Analysing the trends report, its author, Graeme Temple, Far East Regional Director at BraemarSA, said: “Engine room fires remain all too common a problem, and during the Summer we saw a dramatic increase.  Since attending these casualties we found that typically these fires are being caused by volatile vapours impinging on hot surfaces from technical failures that are down to a lack of maintenance and basic routine visual inspection.
 
“If we look at the trends recorded during the Spring, the Far East team for BraemarSA only attended two fire casualties, so the increase of 150% should be a wakeup call for owners and managers not neglect regular maintenance, especially on aging vessels and for crews to remember basic watch keeping practice. It also remains the case that engine failures accounts for nearly 50% of what we do.”
 
In its Quarterly Asia Market Briefing, Braemar SA has analysed vessel casualties it has attended in the quarter June to August of this year.  Other notable trends compared to the Spring report, include a reduction in the number of structural casualties and a decrease in the number of contact/collision casualties.