Halon Fire Extinguisher??

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junglejim2

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Hey all, one more quick question. I am working a motorcruiser in Ibiza. There is a Halon engine room extinguisher which is out of service by a few years.

I know Halon is no longer permissible, but I need some advice.

The owner has been told that the replacement system will cost £10,000. He has checked his insurance documents and the only requirement is for an engine room fire detector.

What the heck do I do here as he is saying the fire detector is fine and not keen on servicing the extinguisher system due to cost.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks
 
You won't be able to get it serviced so it's a question of a new one or an alarm. If this is big boat then I'd want both - no point in the fire getting put out without you knowing it has happened in case the fire is not out or the engine is about to conk out from air starvation. He wants to spend £10,000 but won't find a few hundred for safety stuff? Says a lot about the owner. Give him your recommendations in writing.
 
Is there any legislation in Ibiza regarding firex in engine rooms, or has the insurance company requested improvments following a survey, frinstance ? Detector only ? I can't believe that !
It seems that the owner is cutting corners a bit ?

What's your contract state regarding the boat ? Are you the registered skipper ? If so, then it will be down to you if it goes wrong.

Sorry, but you need to get your views down in writing to the owner.
 
The halon extinguishant was made ilegal by international agreement because of the danger of the Flourocarbons to the ozone layer.
The extinguishant BCF was another name were incredibly efficient at fire extinguishing compared to Co2 or dry powder. By a factor of something like 10 to 1 over dry powder.

I understand that there has been progress towards producing a similar gas/liquid which is acceptable to the environment which can be used in Halon system. However you would need to do research on this. The halon was stored as a liquified gas at relatively low pressure but it has a huge latent heat of evaporation (cooling on expansion to gas) which aided fire extinguishing.

My guess is that the quote for a new system was for Co2 system. The problem here is that Co2 doesn't easily go to liquid state at high temp low pressure so it must be stored at very high pressure to get enough available. So cylinders of 150bar (2500psi) are used. The cylinder is heavy and requires frequent pressure testing for safety.

As captain you need to comply with applicable local regulations regarding the size of the boat and the operation. Obviously small pleasure boats don't have Co2 systems. If you want more than the regulations require by way of extinguishers you either convince the owner to pay for it or get another boat to work on. As suggested written record of negotiatins are worth keeping just in case........ olewill
 
Confused now /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
I have a hand held halon extinguisher that I was told should not be used because the fumes were toxic, nothing to do with environmental impact. Have they been outlawed just because they aren't good for the environment, or because they're dangerous to people ?.
 
As mentioned earlier, Halon was band because of its affect on the ozone layer; it is a very good extinghuishant and only need 4% by volume to work. Unfortunately at high temperatures it breaks down and produces phosgene gas
 
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