Workplace

Safety & Health

Fire and Confined

Space Safety for
Marine Industry

All Rights Reserved

 Scope

• Fire Safety
• Confined Space Safety
• Case Studies
 Introduction

• Of late, the accident rates in shipyard had risen and

concerns were raised on the adequacy of the control
measures especially for the hazardous activities.

• Fire and explosions and confined space hazards are

major concerns. Control measures are critical to ensure
the safety of workers involved in such activities.
 Fire Safety
For fire to start, three elements must be present. They are fuel,
oxygen and heat, as shown in the fire triangle.

To prevent a fire, one of the elements must be taken away and

in most cases, the fuel or heat sources is being removed.
 Fire Safety
Control measures for fire prevention onboard vessels :
• Coordination of incompatible works during VSCC
meeting.

Attendance

Schedules of work

Special attention on bunkering, ballasting

Shift work
 Fire Safety
Control measures for fire prevention onboard vessels :
• All hot works must be accompanied by valid hot work
permits
• All hot work tools are to be inspected and validated before
use
• Only trained hot work trade workers are allowed to conduct
hot works
• Safety devices such as flashback arrestors, non-return
valves, anti leakage devices, etc must be used
• Fire watchmen and fire fighting equipment must be readily
available.
• All flammable materials must be kept away from the hot
work areas.
 Fire Safety
• Control measures:
• Cutting torches must be inspected and leak tested
fortnightly
• Ensure the hot work areas and adjacent tanks are free of
combustibles
• Ensure falling sparks and molten slag do not fall into tanks
or onto combustibles
• Gas checks and monitoring, if hot work is conducted in
confined space
• Effective and continuous ventilations must be provided
Confined Space Safety
 WSH (General Provisions) Regulations
Regulation 25 (1)
(1) Paragraphs (2) to (10) shall apply where work in any factory
has to be done inside any chamber, tank, vat, pit, pipe, flue or
confined space, in which –
(a) dangerous fumes are liable to be present to such an extent as
to involve risks of persons being overcome thereby; or
(b) the supply of air is inadequate, or is likely to be reduced to be
inadequate, for sustaining life.
 Safe Work
Procedures for
Confined Space
Entry
Case Studies
 Case Studies

• Date: 2006
• Place : A Shipyard in
Singapore
• Age of Deceased : 24
years
• Type: Confined Space

Entry to bilge of pump room where deceased was

found
 Brief Description
• Cargo pipes were dismantled and sent to workshop for repairs /
renewal.
• At 1.00pm on the day of accident, these pipes were brought
back to the pump room.
• At 2.30pm, 4 workers (including the deceased) were cleaning
flanges of existing pipes prior to reinstallation of new & repaired
pipes.
• At 4.00pm, the deceased was last seen leaving the pump room
to discard some old gaskets.
 Brief Description
• At 6.00pm, workers left the pump room and noticed the
deceased’s name tag in the tally box.
• As the deceased was nowhere to be seen in the pump room,
they left thinking that the deceased could have left the pump
room forgetting his tag.
• At 6.45pm, the shipyard was alerted after deceased had failed
to collect his security pass.
• Search was mounted and at 7.30 pm, the deceased was found
at the bottom of the pump bilge.
 Findings
• When found, deceased smelt
strongly of petroleum vapour.
Deceased was about 3 metres from
designated work area
• Pipes at the bilge leaking a
colourless liquid. Although valves
were shut, open flange of pipe was
not sealed after section of pipes
dismantled
• Last cargo – Liquid Naptha Location where
deceased was
• After accident, Gas Test - LEL 20%,
found
O² 21%

• >2000ppm of Naptha vapours can cause eye irritation, dizziness, unconsciousness

and even death. Symptoms took effect within 30 minutes
• Before accident, last gas check was done at 5.30am.
• Shipyard’s requirement – gas checks at 6.00am and 1.00pm daily.
• Before accident, no worker was carrying portable gas detection meter when working
in pump room.
• Deceased was overcome by high vapour concentration of naptha.
Thank You