Safety Equipment, Fire Protection, and Life-Saving Appliances
Domain 5 tests the fire and life-saving arrangements a surveyor would verify on board, plus the servicing intervals standing behind the certificates.
Fire protection (SOLAS II-2)
Fire safety rests on prevention, detection, containment and escape: A-, B- and C-class divisions (A-60 boundaries around accommodation and machinery spaces), detection and alarm systems, and fixed installations - CO₂ in machinery spaces with pre-discharge alarm and delay, foam on tank decks, water mist in accommodation. Fire control plans, patrols and monthly drills with records.
LSA (SOLAS III, LSA Code)
- Cargo ships carry lifeboats for 100% of persons on each side, or a free-fall boat aft plus liferafts each side.
- Liferafts are in addition, not in substitution.
- One immersion suit per person; lifebuoys scaled by length under III/7.1; two SARTs and a float-free EPIRB for ships of 500 GT and over.
- Liferafts are serviced annually at an approved station; the hydrostatic release unit and EPIRB battery follow their own cycles.
Worked example
A 118 m cargo ship has 18 persons on board. She needs a lifeboat of at least 18 persons capacity on each side (or a free-fall boat of 18 aft), plus liferafts each side totalling 18 persons, plus 18 immersion suits. Sizing the lifeboat to 15 because "the liferafts make up the difference" is a defect: lifeboat capacity must itself cover all persons on board.
Traps
- Counting liferaft capacity towards the lifeboat 100%.
- Excluding the master from the persons-on-board figure.
- Treating a drill as complete without a debrief and an entry in the official log.
- Mixing annual liferaft servicing with the separate HRU and EPIRB battery intervals.