United States Department of Transportation
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Fire Safety Analysis of the USCGC Dependable
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1999-01-01
[PDF-5.84 MB]
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Edition:Final Report, 8/97 - 1/99
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Abstract:This report documents the results of a fire safety analysis of the USCGC DEPENDABLE prior to and after implementing changes associated with the Paragon project. The Paragon project reduces the normal crew by approximately 20% and implements a number of changes to supplant the loss of manual firefighting effectiveness. These changes include a new fire detection and monitoring system, installation of fixed surveillance cameras, and utilization of a rapid response team concept. The Ship Fire Safety Engineering Methodology (SFSEM) and associated computer program, SAFE version 2.2, were utilized as an analytical tool to perform the analysis. The SFSEM is a probabilistic based fire risk analysis methodology. It is useful to conduct a structured and comprehensive analysis of the performance of all types of surface ships as a fire safety system. The SFSEM provides an integrated framework for analyzing fires on ships in comparison to established fire safety objectives. It accounts for all relevant aspects of fire safety including the growth and spread of fire, the effectiveness of passive design features such as barriers, and active fire protection features such as fixed and portable fire extinguishing systems, as well as manual fire suppression. SAFE implements the SFSEM and evaluates the probability of spaces and barriers limiting a fire. The evaluation is conducted on a compartment-by-compartment basis. SAFE calculates the probable paths of fire spread for user-specified time duration. SFSEM/SAFE has been successfully used to analyze the fire safety design of existing as well as proposed ships. SAFE input data included information collected during a ship visit to the CGC DEPENDABLE during the period 30 September - 3 October I 997. Baseline fire safety analysis results show that with just passive fire protection in effect (without considering automated or manual fire protection), all compartments in the DEPENDABLE exceed fire safety objectives, both in port and at sea. Automated and manual firefighting attributes increase the margin of safety provided by passive protection. The post Paragon fire safety analysis shows improvement in fire safety in all scenarios. Recommendations are provided to implement the rapid response team concept on all other cutters in the Coast Guard and modification of fire detection systems on other cutters.
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