National Safe Boating Week runs from 24 to 30 May. At the Fire Protection Association, they thought this would be a great opportunity to share knowledge, information, and testing standards when it comes to preventing boat fires.
Watermist systems are an effective way to protect ships from fire. These systems have an important job and therefore must be properly maintained and tested and can help with that.
Royal Navy Defence standards
Receiving an accreditation underpins the importance of expert advice and testing
As an independent third party, test water mist nozzles for the Maritime industry and test to International Maritime standards. The purpose-built testing facilities have specially trained laboratory staff and are also authors of the UK MOD’s Royal Navy Defence standards for water mist suppression systems.
Receiving an accreditation underpins the importance of expert advice and testing. The UKAS accreditation for BS 8458 water mist system testing was awarded this year and are proud to be pioneering the way as one of the first UK fire testing facilities accredited to offer this important British Standard test.
UKAS accreditation
To cement their expertize further, they are working towards another UKAS accreditation for water mist testing. The progress on this will be updated on the news page.
The FPA is investing in a new International Maritime Organization Rig to test several systems on boats. Boat fires are relatively infrequent in comparison to domestic and commercial fires, however, they can have devastating consequences. They have invested heavily into this test rig as it is crucial that these systems are tested appropriately to ensure they protect ships and save lives from fire.
Every UK or EU-flagged ship needs to have systems tested to IMO MSC/CIRC 848 standard. This includes gas fire extinguishing systems on boat. Testing is important to them and they want users to have the confidence and reassurance it is done correctly.