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10 tips for effective fire drills

by The Editorial Team — October 25, 2022 in Loss Prevention, Maritime Knowledge, Safety

Credit: Shipowners' Club

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In the worst case scenario of a fire onboard, crew members are

required to act as professional firemen in a challenging
environment, without any other assistance. Above all, the best
fire prevention is a well-trained crew and fire drills aim at
experience transfer between the crew in order to become able
to recognize potential fire hazards.

A
s per SOLAS Chapter III Regulation 19, every crew member must participate in at
least one fire drill every month on board. STCW, requires crew members to have
passed the Basic Fire Fighting training Course (VI/1) and the head of fire fighting
teams to have passed the Advanced Fire Fighting Course (VI/3). Following the
model courses of IMO (1.20 and 2.03), a crew member attends a theoretical training and a
practice training. As such, 10-12 hours of practice training is required by regulation while on
board familiarization and training through drills is a must.

In essence, familiarization is part of every Safety Management System and is required in

order each crew member boarding a ship to know how to use the fire fighting equipment and
related systems. However, considering that fire fighting requires effective teamwork among
crew members, the team’s performance and response is vital in the event of a fire emergency
onboard.

A best practice guide

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The following best practice may be used to conduct effective fire drills. The first two items
are “NO GO” items for firefighting.

#1 Check for firefighting equipment condition and availability

The fire fighting equipment and systems (as all equipment/systems on board) should be
readily available for use, in excellent working conditions, having passed all required
maintenance stages at the required periods.

#2 Organize onboard firefighting

An effective Muster list is to be posted and all crew members to be informed for their
position and duties during different emergency situations on board. The organizational
structure of fire fighting teams should be applicable to ship type and systems used on board.

#3 Focus on Fire Drill planning

In order to be effective, the drill should be planned carefully. Time selection should be
appropriate in order to achieve the maximum participation of the crew (covering the
requirements of rest hours)
#4 Pre -drill Briefing is essential

The briefing should be conducted near the area of the drill to explain required actions by
each participant. A quick equipment demonstration provides additional value to the briefing
results.

#5 Select different Drill Areas each time

In many cases, Masters or Company’s representatives select the same areas for drills, i.e. fire
drill in Galley is the most common. However, since fire hazards exist in all ship’s spaces,
different areas should be selected for each drill. The best practice is to keep a specific list of
areas of the ship’s four major areas (Accommodation, Cargo Area, Engine Room with adjacent
compartments, Open Deck). In a 12-month period 3 different spaces from each major part
should be used for drill execution.

#6 Set specific timeline

The drill is used to train seafarers to act as much closely to reality. In this respect a specific
timeline has to be set. For example the Drill Announcement and Mustering has to achieve
some minimum time frames. The deployment of the teams has to achieve another time
frame etc. As it is already known, the first stages of fire (before full development) are critical
for firefighting.

#7 A step by step monitoring and supervision is needed

The supervising officer (trainer) should guide the teams at all stages of deployment. Mistakes
or omission to be noted and used at de-briefing session

#8 Post Drill Briefing (De-briefing) is essential

Having completed the drill, trainer should notify all participants for mistakes/omissions for
improvement and lessons learned, but also he/she has to highlight the items that went
accurately well during the drill to increase motivation and boost engagement.

#9 Don’t forget restoration of the area and all equipment

After the drill, all areas and equipment should be restored to the condition they were prior
drill and ready for immediate further use. If breathing devises have been used with training
air cylinders, then these cylinders should be replaced by other fully filled.

#10 Keep records each time

In order to have effective results and provide feedback to head office, all actions should be
recorded while a complete drill evaluation report should be submitted. The minimum
requirements for record keeping are:
 Response times

Difficulties raised during drill

Lessons learned

Crew performance

Proposals for improvement

Extra tip

The stage of preparation and training during drills is the appropriate clothing & uniforms’ use.
Fireman outfit should be tried by all available crew members so that all of them be able to react.

Don’t forget!

Mariners should always conduct fire drills as if there is a real fire. That will better ensure a high level
of preparedness in the event of an actual emergency.

Tags: best practices drills fire safety measures how to

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