Malta’s Marine Safety Investigation Unit issued a report, regarding an incident of fire in the engine-room of “Azamara Quest” cruise ship, following its departure from Mumbai, India, on April 2016.
The incident
On 27 April 2016, at about 1330, the staff chief engineer heard one of the crew members shouting in the engine-room. He made his way to the workshop in order to investigate what had happened. At the other entrance to the workshop, the staff chief engineer was informed that there was a fire on one of the diesel generators.
The staff chef engineer hurried towards the diesel generator room and from the inside, he observed a dark orange fire under the turbocharger of diesel generator no. 2, on the B-bank side. The fire was brought under control within a few minutes, limiting the damage to the immediate surroundings of the turbocharger.
Conclusions
- The immediate cause of the fire was found to be a pressurised fuel oil leak on the fuel oil supply line to the high pressure fuel oil pumps;
- It was not excluded that actually a lower tightening torque had been applied when the system was last maintained, thus allowing for vibration to loosen the bolts after a relatively short period of running time;
- Vibration was a major contributing factor to the loosening of the four Allen bolts;
- Despite the protection covers, a closer inspection revealed that fuel oil had sprayed at a pressure of 8 bar underneath the protective cover, penetrated through the gaps in the exhaust lagging screen, reached the exhaust pipe and auto ignited;
- The gaps in the protective screen had never been detected during the regular maintenance on the DG because of the narrow and small spaces involved;
- The ultra fog system had been operated successfully;
- The staff chief engineer took the necessary and timely actions by activating the ultra fog system and shutting down the fuel oil supply to the affected prime mover.
Safety measures taken during investigation
Although the covers had been installed as per maker’s design, the Company fitted SOLAS splash tape on the affected flange and pipe as an added protection barrier system.
Moreover, the Company replaced the (blue) release buttons on the water mist system with red call buttons to avoid any confusion. The Company has also addressed this issue through its crew familiarisation procedure.
Further details may be found in the following report: