A UK Safety Alert has been issued relating to recent high potential incident (HiPos) within our operations – Fire on High Voltage Electrical Drive Panel.

A trailer suction hopper dredger was two hours into its regular and routine seabed dredging operation when a fire alarm activated in Zone 8 (Pump Room.)  It was ultimately discovered to be an electrical fire on the dredge pump drive within the adjoined Pump Motor Room in the same fire detection zone.

Initially following the alarm sounding, the cause of the fire alarm was not clear within the large fire alarm zone.  Upon discovery the fire was successfully extinguished by the ship’s crew using portable CO2 extinguishers.  There were no injuries to personnel and no damage to other equipment.

You can read the full Safety Alert including key finds and review points in the download section of the UK News website:  UK Safety Alert - Fire on high voltage electrical drive panel (365 downloads)   To view the Safety Alert video please visit the download section of the UK News website:  Safety Alert Video - Hipo-Dumper truck wheel loss (369 downloads)

Reporting Near Miss / Hazard Alert events provides an opportunity for action to be taken to improve standards and minimise the risk of future injuries.  This is particularly true where there is high potential for injury, as in the incidents outlined in these Alerts.  We define high potential near misses (HiPos) as events that, realistically, could have under other circumstances caused one or more fatalities or life changing injury.

Please review these Alerts with your teams, taking the opportunity to highlight the benefit of reporting and investigating all near misses / hazards and HiPos, and stressing that colleagues will be thanked, rather than criticised for reporting incidents…By reporting near misses and hazards we are looking after ourselves and each other!