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> The crew receive some cursory training in basic firefighting every once in a while. That is EXACTLY part of the problem. You put people with lots of flammabl

> The crew receive some cursory training in basic firefighting every once in a while. That is EXACTLY part of the problem. You put people with lots of flammable stuff under their asses on a ship in the middle of nowhere, with no help readily available, and hope that some sprinklers will be good enough to do the job. Don't you see a problem with that, that should be tackled?

nradov 3y ago
I see all sorts of marine safety problems that could be tackled with sufficient resources. If you're an expert in this area then I would encourage you to work through your national authorities to propose further SOLAS amendments. They come up with new ones on a regular basis. https://www.dnv.com/news/what-s-new-with-solas-2024--227502 https://www.dnv.com/news/what-s-new-with-solas-2024--227502 The thing is that ferries are generally a low margin business so imposing a bunch of extra firefighting requirements will make some of them at the margins no longer economically viable. And fires aren't necessarily even the biggest risk: they also have to worry about collisions, loss of power, storms, navigational errors, cargo shifting, etc. Realistically I just don't think civilian crews can be expected to effectively fight major fires in 50KWh+ lithium battery packs. Instead they should focus on fast, safe evacuation; when there is significant loss of life due to shipboard fires it's usually because the crew waited too long to abandon ship and screwed up the lifeboat deployment. Once the people are off then just let the vessel burn, or perhaps let a skeleton crew try to put into a nearby harbor where fire boats with trained personnel can take over. It may also be practical to do something on the prevention front such as a quick visual inspection of EVs for obvious battery pack damage and dashboard warning lights. Or require packs to be discharged below 20% or whatever before boarding (passengers will complain about this).

nradov 3y ago

I see all sorts of marine safety problems that could be tackled with sufficient resources. If you're an expert in this area then I would encourage you to work through your national authorities to propose further SOLAS amendments. They come up with new ones on a regular basis. https://www.dnv.com/news/what-s-new-with-solas-2024--227502 https://www.dnv.com/news/what-s-new-with-solas-2024--227502 The thing is that ferries are generally a low margin business so imposing a bunch of extra firefighting requirements will make some of them at the margins no longer economically viable. And fires aren't necessarily even the biggest risk: they also have to worry about collisions, loss of power, storms, navigational errors, cargo shifting, etc. Realistically I just don't think civilian crews can be expected to effectively fight major fires in 50KWh+ lithium battery packs. Instead they should focus on fast, safe evacuation; when there is significant loss of life due to shipboard fires it's usually because the crew waited too long to abandon ship and screwed up the lifeboat deployment. Once the people are off then just let the vessel burn, or perhaps let a skeleton crew try to put into a nearby harbor where fire boats with trained personnel can take over. It may also be practical to do something on the prevention front such as a quick visual inspection of EVs for obvious battery pack damage and dashboard warning lights. Or require packs to be discharged below 20% or whatever before boarding (passengers will complain about this).