An accident in a closed room on a ship claims one victim, two are spared

A bulk carrier loaded with coal was at anchor. The deck crew was tasked with greasing the handles of the cargo hold blast hatches. Some of the handles were rusted solid and had to be dismantled before they could be greased.

Four crew members were busy releasing the dog handles on one of the blast hatches. During this work, the blast hatch was opened and a disassembled dog handle fell into the hatch. A man climbed down to retrieve it. When he climbed back up with the retrieved dog handle, he lost consciousness due to lack of oxygen, fell and landed on the coal load about 3.5 meters below.

Immediately, the alarm was raised and the crew mobilized to rescue the victim. An officer arrived at the blast hatch wearing an emergency breathing apparatus (EEBD) hood and entered the cargo hold via the blast hatch ladder. In the meantime, two air hoses were connected to the air supply to supply air to the cargo hold. The officer who had gone through the blast hatch with the EEBD soon came out again and said that breathing in the cargo hold was difficult and hot.

The chef then took matters into his own hands on his own initiative. He grabbed the two air hoses, a safety belt and ropes and descended into the hold to attempt a rescue. Within five minutes the chef had managed to secure the safety belt under the victim’s arms and the crew on the main deck were able to pull him out; the chef left the hold shortly after. The victim was not breathing and had no heartbeat or pulse. CPR was performed and the victim was evacuated to shore, but to no avail – he was pronounced dead.

Lessons learned

• During an emergency rescue, the atmosphere of an enclosed space should always be considered unsafe unless confirmed otherwise.
• An EEBD must never be used to rescue a victim in an enclosed space. This equipment is intended only for escape from a space with a hazardous atmosphere and must not be used to enter voids or tanks with a lack of oxygen on board ships.
• Many indoor emergencies resulted in additional casualties; people attempting to rescue the first victim themselves succumbed to oxygen deprivation during improvised and poorly executed rescue operations. In this case, the cook and officer with the EEBD were simply “lucky”.
• In situations like this accident, the ship’s masters must take responsibility. The officer should never have entered the hold with only an EEBD and the cook should have been immediately prevented from entering the hold.
• Although confined space rescue drills are now mandatory on ships, the “elephant in the room” – the problem that is not discussed – remains the lack of standardized and comprehensive training for crew (how can you practice what you can’t do?) and the lack of mandatory rescue equipment to be carried on board. This paradox was addressed in a June 2021 Seaways article and can be accessed here.
• Another “elephant in the room” is the unwritten agreement that a confined space rescue, when the atmosphere is unbreathable, can be accomplished using firefighting breathing apparatus. While this equipment is better than nothing, it is arguably very bulky and could hinder the rescue or otherwise be counterproductive. Slimline rescue breathing apparatus are available in other industries, but to date there is no requirement for their use in the marine industry.

Reference: nautinst.org