INCIDENT - DATELINE - November 09, 2021

VESSEL CAPT. KIRBY DUPUIS

TYPE TOWING/BARGE (TOWING VESSEL)

FLAG UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PORT NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

YEAR BUILT 2011

OFFICIAL NO. 1229999

IMO NO. N/A

CLASS N/A

LOA 120 FT (36.6 M)

BEAM 35 FT (10.7 M)

DRAFT 11.6 FT (3.5 M)

TONNAGE 436 GRT

ENGINE 2 X 2,000 HP (1,491 KW) CATERPILLAR

3512 C DIESEL ENGINES

“On November 9, 2021, about 0708 local time, a fire broke out on the port main diesel engine on board the towing vessel Capt. Kirby Dupuis. The vessel was pushing thirteen loaded dry cargo barges while transiting upbound on the Ohio River at mile marker 501 near Belleview, Kentucky, with a crew of six. Crewmembers fought the fire using portable extinguishers and attempted to use the vessel’s fixed fire-extinguishing system. The fire was extinguished by local firefighters in the early afternoon, and the vessel was towed to port. No pollution or injuries were reported. Damage to the vessel was estimated at $1,800,000.” This is the opening statement from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report MIR-22/24.

The fire was declared out at 1300 hours, that means for almost six hours the engine room was on fire. That was a dangerous situation and the fact that no crewmember was injured is truly amazing. Fire on a petroleum fueled vessel is about the scariest thing that you can imagine in the Maritime field.

The NTSB report continues, “On the morning of November 9, the towboat was transiting with both engines about 1,275-1,290 rpm (typical underway engine loading) for a speed of about 5–6 knots. About 0708, the captain, on watch in the wheelhouse, noticed a flash on the engine room video display. Immediately following the flash, the vessel’s fire detection system alarmed. The captain sounded the general alarm and instructed the deckhand on watch to notify all crewmembers about the fire and to begin firefighting efforts.

About the same time, the deckineer, in the engineer’s office on the main deck overlooking the engine room, saw a fire near the port main engine in the lower engine room. He retrieved a fire extinguisher and attempted to enter the upper engine room from the main deck passageway, but the smoke and heat prevented him from accessing the space. He then joined the other crewmembers to try to fight the fire from the starboard-side exterior main deck. The deckineer tried to start the fire pump from a remote pushbutton on the exterior bulkhead, but it was inoperable (he looked through a window into the engine room and believed the electrical switchboard for the fire pump was “melting”). Unable to enter the engine room and without an operable fire pump, the deckineer contacted the captain via handheld radio and requested permission to activate the fixed fire-extinguishing (suppression) system for the engine room.”

Fighting an active fire on a vessel requires good decision making and a knowledgeable team working together. When a team member acts out of fear, he forgets his training, acting out of knowledge enables them to perform their task as needed. This is one reason WHY you should always make your fire fighting and emergency scenarios as realistic as possible.

Back to the NTSB report, “To prepare for the release, the deckineer and crewmembers closed the engine room doors, windows, and ventilation dampers on the stacks. The deckineer activated the remote emergency fuel shut offs for the engines (located on the exterior bulkhead). After securing the engine room, the deckineer returned to the main passageway by his stateroom and “hit the first fire suppression system” by pulling one of the two remote pull levers.

He observed the portside fire diminishing but then saw flames growing on the starboard side of the engine room near a stack of boxes filled with oil filters. He told investigators that he believed the fire had traveled across the engine room from the port main engine to these boxes because the port ventilation supply fan, which discharged directly above the port main engine, remained on during the initial stages of the fire. (The ventilation supply fan shut down at an unknown time during the casualty; the deckineer attributed the shutdown to fire damage to the fan’s switchboard.)”

This is a good example of why all ventilation should be shut down during a major fire incident. The intrusion of fresh air into an open flame is the third leg of the fire triad (Fuel/Ignition/Oxygen). Remote shut offs should be used and checked during your normal fire drills. The more you can simulate real world issues in a drill, the more likely that your fellow mariner will know what switch to throw in an Emergency.

They eventually got the fire under control, but only with outside assistance. From the NTSB report, “Several nearby towing vessels arrived to assist with firefighting efforts, exterior boundary cooling, controlling the Capt. Kirby Dupuis’ tow, and evacuating crewmembers. A fireboat arrived on scene at 0858, and the fire was extinguished about 1300 with the assistance of multiple fire departments. The fire caused extensive heat and smoke damage to the vessel’s engine room. The upper and lower engine room bulkheads and overheads were completely burned by the fire as well as the machinery, fixtures, and equipment in the upper engine room. A marine surveyor estimated the damages to be 1.8 million dollars.”

The next day a ‘hotwash – after action investigation’ was conducted by United States Coast Guard and the NTSB members. From the report, “…investigators reviewed the vessel’s video system. At 0708:50, lube oil began to spray inboard from the port main engine into the center of the engine room toward the starboard main engine. About 10 seconds later, a flame at the top of the forward part of the engine by the exhaust manifold erupted inboard toward the starboard engine. The video lasted about 1 minute, until the camera stopped recording.” The video systems are really helping out in the earlier discovery of fire onboard vessels. This is a component that I would recommend if you are in the process of overhauling your engine room.

A technical service manager then inspected the engine and reviewed the above described video footage. He concluded in his report to NTSB that, “the cause of the fire was “a severe oil leak” that sprayed onto the exhaust manifold of the port main engine near the no. 1 cylinder and ignited. “Ventilating air from the air duct above the [port main] engine supplied the fire with oxygen and blew the fire across the engine room damaging the stbd. [starboard] main engine.”

The report gives the following conclusions for this incident on the towing vessel, “The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the engine room fire aboard the towing vessel Capt. Kirby Dupuis was a lube oil tube on the port main engine that vibrated out of a joint due to a missing retaining ring and mounting bracket, spraying pressurized oil that made contact with a hot exhaust surface and ignited. Contributing to the severity of the fire damage was the crew’s unfamiliarity with activation procedures for the fixed fire-extinguishing system, which resulted in an unsuccessful attempt to release the fire suppression fluid and extinguish the fire.”

Drills are necessary for all persons onboard to gain familiarity with the various types of equipment that one would encounter on that type of vessel. A small engine room on a Towing Vessel can be claustrophobic during normal operating conditions, imagine now that one side of the engine room is ablaze.  What should you do? That is where your training for that type of situation should kick in.

Last two sentences from the NTSB report, “Crewmembers should train for engine room fires and review extinguishing system instructions. Training drills should ensure that crewmembers are familiar with fixed fire-extinguishing systems and procedures, including confirming crew evacuation, isolating the protected space, and activating the system.”

Again, good, realistic emergency drills at all times will only enhance the cohesiveness of your existing crew and bond them into a fire fighting unit that you can depend on when you need it.

(Last update November 01, 2022)

Who says lube oil doesn’t burn? The lubricating oil was atomized by the leak in the O ring and ejected into the atmosphere of the Engine Room. One second of time between the middle frame and bottom frame. That’s it, one second later and you have a major fire in your Engine Room.