Fire in engine room on multipurpose trawler Kingfisher II

Location: 5 miles east of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.

From:
Marine Accident Investigation Branch
Published
23 January 2015
Vessel type:
Fishing vessel
Report type:
Investigation report
Date of occurrence:
26 April 2004

Accident Investigation Report 15/2004

Investigation report into marine accident including what happened, safety lessons and recommendations made:

Kingfisher II.pdf (910.83 kb)

Summary

At 0637 UTC on 26 April 2004, MRSC Stornoway received a “Mayday” mobile telephone call from the skipper of the fv Kingfisher II. The report indicated the vessel was suffering an engine room fire, off the east coast of North Uist.

Safety Issues

  • there was extensive use of electrical block connectors, evidence of exposed wires and intermittent supply problems
  • the vessel was not fitted with a fire/smoke detection system, which is not required by regulations
  • the engine room after bulkhead was made from tongue and groove timber, which had no obvious fire retardant properties and was not gas tight
  • risk assessments had not been completed on the vessel’s operations and the owner of Kingfisher II was unaware of the requirement to conduct these

Recommendations

Recommendations centre on amendments to the Fishing Vessel Code of Practice for vessels under 12 metres in length, stowage of emergency equipment, and the conduct of risk assessments.

This report was published on 30 November 2004.

Published 23 January 2015

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