The reliability of a vessel’s firefighting system directly affects crew safety and vessel security. Unlike land-based buildings, ships have confined spaces, complex passageways, and difficult evacuation routes. Once a fire gets out of control, the consequences are catastrophic. Jiangsu Haizhongzhou Shipping Industry Co., Ltd. adopts a zonal design philosophy combined with end-to-end emergency response testing to build a multi-layered, isolatable, and verifiable fire protection system.
The zonal design divides the vessel into independent fire zones, including the engine room zone, cargo hold zone, accommodation zone, and deck operations zone. Each zone is equipped with independent fire detectors and extinguishing media. The engine room, as a high-risk area, uses a water mist + CO₂ combination: initial fires are tackled by a high-pressure water mist system, which absorbs heat and displaces oxygen; if the fire escalates, CO₂ is released for total flooding. Cargo holds are fitted with a high-pressure water spray system, with spray nozzles arranged to ensure full coverage based on hold geometry. The accommodation zone is equipped with smoke detectors and portable extinguishers, along with emergency escape route lighting. Fire dampers and watertight doors are designed to contain a fire within a single zone and prevent smoke and flame spread.
Emergency response testing covers four key steps: detection, alarm, release, and isolation. The test team uses dedicated smoke generators and heat sources to simulate real fire signals, verifying detector response times—smoke detectors should alarm within 15 seconds, heat detectors within 30 seconds. Alarm signals must reach the bridge and engine control room within 3 seconds, while simultaneously triggering the vessel’s audible and visual alarm system. For the CO₂ system, nitrogen simulation release tests verify cylinder synchronization and delay logic, ensuring that release occurs only after personnel evacuation. Remote closure functions of fire dampers and watertight doors are verified individually, with feedback from all actuators uploaded to the alarm monitoring system.
Haizhongzhou Shipbuilding’s commissioning records show that the first-pass success rate of integrated firefighting system tests exceeds 96%, with response times at all alarm points better than SOLAS Convention requirements.
In accordance with the requirements of SOLAS Chapter II-2 and MSC.1/Circ.1432, Haizhongzhou Shipbuilding has further introduced the principles of redundant detection and independent power supply in its zoned design and system integration. Each fire zone is equipped with detectors on at least two independent loops, and a ring‑bus topology is adopted so that a single break does not affect the zone alarm function. The fire alarm control panel receives dual power supply from the main switchboard and the emergency switchboard with automatic changeover. The CO₂ release control is provided with two independent activation modes (pneumatic and electric) to prevent a single failure from disabling the extinguishing function. All fire damper actuators at zone boundaries incorporate manual reset capability and remote status feedback, and are regularly subjected to high‑temperature ageing tests (48 hours of continuous operation at 70°C). Commissioning records indicate that the redundant design increases the availability of the fire protection system to above 0.999, with a fault self‑diagnostic coverage exceeding 95%. Furthermore, before delivery of each vessel, no less than four hours of live‑fire drills are conducted, covering typical fault simulations such as detector masking and valve‑sticking, achieving a 100% acceptance rate by the owner.
Additionally, the company prepares a firefighting system operation manual and emergency response flow chart for each vessel and provides on-site training to crew members, ensuring integration of theory and practice. Zonal design and rigorous testing together form a solid fire protection line for shipboard fire safety.
