Ten killed on bulk carrier

[vic mcclymont]

The bulk carrier JIN HAI XIANS tied up at Longdon Port, Sangdon Province, China, suffered a massive Co2 leak, killing ten and injuring many more.
The Co2 is believed to have escaped from the engine room extinguishing system.
Report is from MSN News.
Vic

[happy daze john in oz]

We saw that on our news broadcast here in Oz but to date very little details.
May be more tonight, maybe.

[Samuel Denton]

Someone has been pretty clueless in what they were doing. Some idiot has triggered the Pilot bottles. Poor buggers down below were dead as soon as they take a deep breath, lungs full of CO2, no coming back from that.

[John Arton]

On the first 3 of a series of Dutch built product tankers I sailed on as 3rd/2nd and chief mate the Kidde rich co2 smothering system for the engine room came complete with a liquid level indicator instrument that you could run up the outside of the bottles to check the level of the liquid CO2 inside but we were not allowed to use it ourselves to check the bottles unless we went on a 5 day training course at Kidde rich in Northumberland to be trained in its use, so it just stayed in its box. On all the ships I sailed on the CO2 outlets had diffusers on them that emitted a loud whistling noise is gas or air passed through them, warning you of the danger.
Class and flag require that ships CO2 installations be serviced annually by a "competent authority". However I always did a rigorous check of the installation after servicing and often found pilot bottles trip wires left unconnected and on occasion even found the main outlet/stop valve left in the closed position by the service personnel.
Rgds
J.A.

[vic mcclymont]

According to Splash247.com the 3rd Officer has been detained.
Vic

[vic mcclymont]

In the late seventies I moved to IBM's new computer centre at Warwick. The centre had two 1,440 sq Feet computer rooms, with three ancillary rooms attached to each computer rooms.
Ancillary rooms associated with each rooms were divided by a common corridor.
The six ancillary rooms were protected by Co2 flooding.
It was Saturday night had been snowing heavily, got a call the site had blacked out.
Called my mate, we both headed in, by the time we got there power had been restored lights on not much else.
One of the ancillary rooms not long after we got there an alarm sounded indicating that there was a water leak, followed by a fire alarm sounding. Went to investigate, as we walked down the corridor, roar like Concorde flying overhead, my mate said what's that. I said leg it quick, its the Co2 being discharged.
Firebrigade arrived, vented the room.
Water leak was caused by a leaking chilled water pipe, joint had burst due to high pressure due to expansion, no chillers running.
Water leak also caused fire alarm to sound.
Vic

[Ken Atkinson]

The Senior 2nd decided to do some work in the bottle room and set the alarm off. Everybody baled out and me as Junior 2nd donned a BA set and with telegraph orders shouted down to me on the main deck I proceeded to make adjustments on the bottom plates as by this time we were in the English Channel.

[Malcolm Lawrence]

When Halon was allowed it was pretty scary, boat engine rooms, computer rooms, petroleum installations you would never have a realistic chance of survival

[John Arton]

Malcolm
Halon can still be used but not halon 1301.
I sailed on a ship that had a halon gas smothering system for the engine room which was ripped and replaced by a CO2 smothering system when we took the ship over from the previous owners. This involved a lot of work, piping etc along with fitting out a co2 bottle storeroom with associated remote operation station.
A couple of months after completion the owners were frantically attempting to discover the whereabouts of the halon bottles as they were "safe" halon and there was a big demand for that safe type and those bottles were worth a canny amount.
Rgds
J.A.https://www.google.com/search?q=safe...obile&ie=UTF-8