Tokyo MOU undertook a Concentrated Inspection Campaign on Fire Safety System
Fire safety has been one of t he top three categories of deficiencies recorded during PSC inspections for many years. For the pur pose of verifying compliance of fire safety system requirements and raising awareness of fire safety related issues, member Authorities of the Tokyo MOU undertook a Concentrated Inspection Campaign on Fire Safety System (FSS) from 1 September to 30 November 2012, said in the press release.
During the three-month period, a total of 8,274 PSC inspections were conducted by the eighteen member Authoritie s, of which 6,606 were rela ted to a CIC inspection. There were a total of 217 detentions re corded during the CIC inspections, among which 150 or 69% of them were detained as the direct results of the CIC. The CIC-topic related detention rate is 2.3% wh ile the overall CIC detention rate 3.3%.
A total of 4,279 CIC related deficiencies were recorded. The most significant deficiencies found during the campaign were related to fire-fighting equipment and appliances 659 (15.40%), followed by ready availability of fire-fighting equipment 470 (11%) and fire detection and alarm system 410 (9.58%). The most CIC inspections relating to sh ip type were conducted on bulk carriers with 2,124 (32%) inspections, followed by general cargo/multi-purpose ships with 1,639 (25%) inspection and container ships with 1,136 (17%) inspections. 81 (54%) of the CIC-topic related detentions were due to general cargo/multi-purpose ships and 34 (23%) were bulk carriers. The most CIC inspections relating to flag were carried out on ships under the flags of Panama with 2,095 (32%) inspections, Hong Kong (China) with 634 (10%) inspections, Liberia with 468 (7%) inspections, Singapore with 393 (6%) inspections, Republic of Korea with 333 (5%) inspections and Marshall Islands with 327 (5%) inspections. Flags with the most CIC-topic relat ed detentions were Panama with 61 (41%) detentions and Cambodia with 20 (13%) detentions. The flags with the highest CIC-topic related detention rate were Equator ial Guinea with 50% (1 detention out of 2 inspections), Tanzania with 33% (4 detentions out of 12 inspections), Cook Islands with 33% (1 detention out of 3 inspections ) and Togo with 25% (1 detention out of 4 inspections).
Although the overall results of the CIC is generally satisfactory, giving the fact that nearly 70% of the detentions was CIC-topic related during the campaign period, the industry has not achieved an acceptable leve l of compliance with the relevant fire safety system requirements. This campaign was carried out jointly with the Paris MOU and also with participation by regional PSC regimes of the Black Sea MOU, the Indian Ocean MOU, the Mediterranean MOU and the Viña del Mar Agreement. The detailed analysis of the results of the campaign will be considered by the Port State Control Committee in October 2013 a nd will be presented to the Sub-Committee on Flag State Implementation of the IMO.