The French classification society Bureau Veritas (BV) will join a consortium that will deliver a Formal Safety Assessment study on boxship fires to the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).
Led by the Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology (DBI) and supported by Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), the University of Southern Denmark (SUD), the Odense Maritime Technology (OMT) and BV, the consortium will conduct a project that aims to identify cost-effective risk control options for cargo fires onboard boxships.
The Formal Safety Assessment study will quantitatively assess the fire risks onboard container vessels and evaluate new fire safety measures by comparing the risk reductions and the associated costs.
“This study will be a meaningful step forward in ensuring fire safety onboard container ships,” commented Laurent Leblanc, senior vice president of technical & operations at Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore.
An online kick-off meeting was held in January and work is already progressing with a series of four online Hazard Identification (HAZID) workshops led by DBI, covering all possible fire safety areas, such as prevention, detection and alarm, containment, firefighting.
The study is expected to be finalised in February 2023 and the results are projected to be presented to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), according to a statement.
“This initiative is an integral part of BV’s Research & Development objectives to further develop knowledge and expertise to help ensure safety at sea and support industry transformation,” stated Leblanc.
