B1/2005M MS AMORELLA, Fire on Car Deck, May 5, 2005

The Finnish Car Passenger Ferry ms AMORELLA had a fire on the car deck in the Stockholm archipelago 19.5.2005. The engine space of a Volvo 740, which was on a car deck caught fire and caused a serious incident. The vessel was on its normal route from Stockholm to Turku. There were 1,077 passengers and a crew of 159 onboard the vessel. There were 1,380 tonnes of cargo. The car decks were full of private cars, busses, trucks and trailers, and motorcycles.

When AMORELLA was approaching the Oxdjupet strait in the Stockholm archipelago, the automatic fire detection system gave alarm of a fire at 22.12. The fire detector gave alarm from the car deck on deck 5, i.e. from the so-called “combi-deck”. In addition to the car deck there are passenger and crew cabins on the deck in question. The combi-deck was fully laden with 89 private cars and three motorcycles.

The alarming of the vessel’s own personnel and fire fighting organisation and the messages about the fire to the maritime rescue centre and shipping company were realised according to the alarm list. A security guard with fire-fighting training started the initial fire-extinction efficiently together with a deck watchman who had been on a watch patrol. The security guard was in charge of the initial fire-extinction until the actual fire-fighting personnel came to the scene. The fire was limited and cooled down with the help of jets of water and the sprinkler system. The fire-chief and the fire-fighting chief directed the extinguishing from the car deck. The fire, which generated a lot of smoke, was finally extinguished by smoke divers using foam 29 minutes after the fire alarm. The fire-watch after the fire was extinguished was carried out in an appropriate way.

Due to the threat caused by the smoke generation the 1,077 passengers onboard the vessel were evacuated to the outer decks or near the outer doors according to the evacuation plan and in a beforehand practised manner. The evacuation was completed almost at the same time as the fire was extinguished. When the extinguishing of the fire was secured, the passengers returned indoors and the vessel continued its voyage safely to Turku.

The investigation has concentrated on the risk that a fire on the car deck of a car-passenger ferry during the voyage can cause to the safety of the vessel. The aim of the investigation has been to identify the risk factors connected with such fires and estimate the possibilities modern technology offers in improving the safety situation onboard.

The Turku Police investigated the cause of the ignition of the car. In this case the fire, which totally destroyed the engine space of the car, had started due to a failure in an electrical device.

It is impossible to estimate the fire risk of an individual car during the loading of the vessel because the safety of vehicles depends on the level of service and maintenance. The shipping company and the vessel cannot influence this risk. On vessels transporting cars the methods for maintaining sufficient fire-safety include the detection of the fire at an early stage as well as correctly dimensioned and to their methods standardised and fast measures to limit and extinguish the fire.

The investigation commission gives safety recommendations to shipping companies and training organisations within the maritime field on the organising of leadership, to the Emergency Services College on the development of extinguishing equipment and extinguishing methods in cooperation with the sea safety authorities and shipping companies, to the training organisations within the maritime field and shipping companies on the advancement of the fire-fighters' skills and knowledge, and to the shipping companies, the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Ministry of the Interior on the development of the cooperation related to rescue at sea.

B1/2005M Report (pdf, 1.83 Mt)