Safety First

[Kamil Lagiewka]

Good Day
My name is Kamil Lagiewka and I am writing this email because I invented 2 interested things , so maybe you can also share with me your thoughts?



I am working as 2nd Officer, in possession of Chief Officer’s license, with experience on LNG and LPG vessels. I was involved in many fire drills and fire extinguisher inspections, so I am very familiar with safety procedures on board



I invented 2 tools which will help with the fire drills and inspections on board. What is most important, my ideas will have impact on health and safety on board. One is turning holder for portable fire extinguisher, second one are backpacks for breathing apparatus spare cylinder.



Two have more clearly situation please see text below and attachments:


Turning Holder for Portable Fire Extinguisher :

One of the duties of deck officer was inspections of fire extinguishers - every month around 100 extinguishes had to be lifted up and turned upside down. After a few checks I started feeling backpain because of the weight of the extinguishers ( 6 to 12 kg). I still have problems with my back and it is not getting any better, so one day I and my father came up with idea of a tool, which will minimize usage of one's strength and people will be able to run inspections smoothly and effortlessly. Unfortunately, I am not able to add attachments or links.






The other idea is a backpack for carrying spare breathing apparatus cylinder. During the fire drills, or in case of real fire, all crew members need to muster and carry relevant equipment. One of the duties of fire squat 1,2 and technical team is carrying additional breathing apparatus cylinder,in case more oxygen would be needed. Seafarers need to carry these bottles in hands. Needles to say that it is not comfortable and not safe - especially when the sea is rough, or running down the stairs. This is why I came up with simple idea of special backpack, perfect for carrying extra breathing apparatus cylinder without much effort. I have attached a presentation regarding this idea, I have already tested in on board of 2 vessels and the feedback was very good. This invention was shortlisted in Safety at Sea Awards 2019 on category "Best safety emerging solution". I was very happy to hear that my idea was appreciated, it was highlighted that I identified gap in the safety market and invented cost friendly solution.



Both of my inventions are protected (patent and industrial design) .



Do you think that this can help and improve safety and make life easier for officers and crew onboard?

Best Regards
Kamil Lagiewka

[Keith Tindell]

Kamil, to fully appreciate your breathing apparatus, you describe the carrying of spare OXYGEN cylinders, could you please clarify, i suspect you mean compressed air, as the training in the use of oxygen sets is very complicated compared with compressed air, regards kt

[j.sabourn]

Oxygen bottles Keith, hardly the thing to be carrying into a fire ? Have seen oxy-acetyline bottles explode and thats enough for me. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Once saw an oxy bottle fall and the top come off.
Took off like a bloody rocket, some pressure in them.

[Keith Tindell]

Strikes fear in to all firemen, to be told on arrival to a building well alight, that it contains out-acetyln cylinders, many jets of water, and don't get close, until they can be immersed in water for 24 hrs. the advent of thermal image cameras made things a lot safer, kt

[John Arton]

I presume when the poster is talking about turning fire extinguishers he is referring to dry powder extinguishers, mind you turning 12kg extinguishers cannot be too difficult and if he has some 100 per month that is only 3 or so a day. Just turning dry powder extinguisher to preventing compaction of the powder is not really sufficient to ensure the extinguisher is in good working order, discharge hose and nozzle has to be checked for operation and to check for damages. Biannually extinguisher emptied, it's interior examined and operating cylinder weighed to ensure correct weight of compressed air inside and no damage to its seal.
As regards carrying spare air bottles for the B.A. sets, that is the duty of the back up fire fighting party, one of whom should be tending the life line whilst the others should be ready to relieve the initial wearers with fully charged bottles in order that they can take over the initial parties work. I guess that most seafarers would be lucky to get much more than 15 minutes out of a B.A. set in a real emergency.
Not to rain on the original posters parade, organisation of work load safety maintenance tasks añd trading/drilling of fire parties is more conducive to safety than his proposals.
Rgds
J.A.

[Keith Tindell]

I,m not familiar with the sets carried at sea, but in the Service the compressed air cylinders have a nominal working duration of 35 minutes, much depending on the work carried out and the breathing rate, but if penetrating deep into the source would only give approx 15 minutes each way, still leaving 10 minutes emergency whistle time. In the early days we had oxygen regenerative sets, 1hr duration, but the training and servicing of these sets cause them to be dispensed with in the early sixties, and all switched to compressed air, kt

- - - Updated - - -

Add to above, most companies now offer twin cylinder sets

[Keith Tindell]

Still remember using the old smoke hoods for fire drills at sea, certainly would not have liked to use them in anger. Can still recall the metal label attached to the hoods, and the instructions to tug on the lie, more air etc, get me out etc, kt,

[John Arton]

Keith
Most B.A sets at sea have a nominal bottle pressure of around 200 bar. Most seafarers will be nowhere near being fit as your average fire fighter, nor will he have the experience of regularly going into spaces filled with smoke and flames.
All the fire fighting courses I attended over the years, even the fit, regular sports playing candidates, could only last at the most 20 minutes in the training modules given the smoke and heat the professional fire fighters had generated. Stress and general fitness levels were the major factors impacting on length of time in the module and on exiting we all thought that we had been in there far longer than we actually been.
On board training exercises we tried to simulate a smoke filled atmosphere by placing tissue paper over the visors of the B.A. sets and also to get the wearers to crawl instead of walking when carrying out searches.
Rgds
J.A.

[happy daze john in oz]

Not sure about other parts of the world but here in Victoria all fire extinquishers are checked twice a year by the local fire brigade.
Then replaced every two.
That applies to all be they foam or powder.