Procedure and real runniing of fire,survival crafts and abandon ship drills.

Efficient fire-fighting demands the fulll co-operation of personnel in all departments of the ship. A fire drill should be held simultaneously with the first stage of the abandon ship drill. Fire-fighting parties should assemble at their designated stations. Engine room personnel should start the fire pumps in machinery spaces and see that full pressure is put on fire mains. Any emergency pump situated outside machinery spaces should also be started; all members of the crew should know how to start and operate the pump.

The fire parties should be sent from their designated stations to the selected site of the supposed fire, taking with them emergency equipment such as axes and lamps and breathing apparatus. The locations should be changed in successive drills to give practice in differing conditions and in dealing with different types of fire so that accommodation, machinery spaces, store rooms, galleys and cargo holds or areas of high fire hazard are all covered from time to time.

An adequate number of hoses to deal with the assumed fire should be realistically deployed. At some stage in the drill, they should be tested by bringing them into use, firstly with water provided by the machinery space pump and secondly with water from the emergency pump alone.

The drill should extend, where practicable, to the testing and demonstration of the remote controls for ventilating fens, fuel pumps and fuel tank valves and the closing of openings.

Fire extingishing installations should be tested to the extent practicable.

Portable fire extinguishers should be available for demonstration of the manner of theif use. They should include rlie different types applicable to different kinds of fire. At each drill, one extinguisher or more should be operated by a member of the fire party, a different member on each occasion.Extinguishers so used should be recharged before being returned to their normal location or sufficient spares should otherwise be carried for demonstration purposes.

Breathing apparatus should be worn by members of the fire-fighting parties so each members in turn has experience of its use. Search and rescue exercises should be undertaken in various parts of the ship. The apparatus should be cleaned and verified to be in good order before it is stowed; cylinders of self-contained breathing apparatus should be recharged or sufficient spare cylinders otherwise carried for this purpose.

Fire appliances, fire and watertight doors and other closing appliances and also fire detection and alarm systems which have not been used in the drill should be inspected to ensure that they are in good order,either at the time of the drill or immediatelly afterwards.Additionally the relevant statutory requirements should be complied with.

Arrangements for survival craft drills should take account of prevailing weather conditions.

Crew members taking part in lifeboat or liferaft drills should muster wearing warm outer clothing and lifejackets properly secured.

Where appropriate, the lowering gear and chocks should be inspected and a check made to ensure that all working parts are well lubricated.

When turning out davits or when bringing boats or rafts inboard under power, seamen should always keep clear of any moving parts.

The engines on motor lifeboats should be started and run ahead and astern. Care should be taken to avoid overheating the engine and the propeller shaft stern gland. All personnel should be familiar with the engine starting procedure.

Hand-operated mechanical propelling gear, if any, should be examined and similarly tested.

Radio equipment should be examined and tested, with the aerial erected, by the Radio Officer or another trained person and the crew instructed in its use.

Personnel in a rescue boat or survival craft being lowered should remain sealed, keeping their hands inside the gunwale to avoid them being crushed against the ship's side. Lifejackets should be worn. In totally enclosed lifeboats seal befts should be secured. Only the launching crew should remain in a lifeboat being raised.

Before craft in gravity davits arc recovered by power, the operation of the limit switches or similar devices should he checked.

A portable hoist unit used to recover a craft should be provided with a crutch or have an attachment to resist the torque. These should be checked. If neither device is available, the crafl should be raised by hand.

Where liferafts are carried, instruction should be given to the ship's personnel in their launching, handling and operation. Methods of boarding them and the disposition of equipment and stores on them should be explained.

The statutory scale of lifesaving appliances must be maintained at all times. If the use of a literaft for practice would bring equipment below the specified scale, a replacement must first be made available.

CMA CGM KALAMATA