Fire alarm in the guest cabins

What you do on the bridge

1. Accept the alarm
2. Send someone to look
3. Tell the Master
4. All-clear: no general alarm, reset

The oral questions, and what a good answer covers

The key points are in our own words. In the course, these questions come once you have done the job.

1. One detector goes into alarm in the guest cabins. How do you decide whether it is a real fire?Often asked

   A good answer covers:

   • Treat it as a real fire until someone has been and looked
   • Accept it at the panel, note the zone and detector, and send someone with a radio at once
   • Look for more: a second detector, smoke on CCTV, other reports
   • If it is confirmed, sound the general alarm straight away; if it is clear, no general alarm
   • Tell the Master either way

   Show me on the bridgeOpen the fire detection panel and the reports to the bridge.

2. What commonly sets off a smoke detector when there is no fire, and how do you prevent it?

   A good answer covers:

   • Steam from showers, galleys and laundries
   • Aerosol sprays, dust from work, cooking fumes, and smoking
   • Tell guests and crew what sets detectors off, and keep doors to wet spaces shut
3. When may you reset the fire panel, and what do you check first?

   A good answer covers:

   • Only once someone has looked and given the all-clear
   • The cause is found and gone, so the detector has cleared
   • After the reset nothing is left in alarm, and no zone is left disabled by mistake
   • Log the alarm, the cause and the reset, and tell the Master

   Show me on the bridgeLook at the panel after the all-clear: what is still in alarm?

4. During the false alarm an engine room bilge alarm goes off. How do you handle both?

   A good answer covers:

   • Keep the fire alarm first until it is known to be clear
   • Accept the engine alarm and tell the engineer, so someone else works it
   • Keep the navigation going: lookout, traffic and position do not stop
   • Get help to the bridge early: call the Master when the load is too much for one

How the lesson runs

The tutor's narration from the lesson, step by step. On the bridge, each control lights up as it is named.

1. Brief

   We're on the morning watch, making ten knots east on the autopilot. A minute in, one detector will go into alarm in the guest cabins.

   We treat it as real until someone has looked. If they find nothing, we don't sound the general alarm. We reset the panel and tell the Master. Other things will happen on the watch too: deal with them, but don't lose the fire alarm.

2. Accept the alarm

   There's the alarm. Accept it at the panel within a minute, before it sounds through the crew spaces by itself. Note the zone: 5, the guest cabins.

3. Send someone to look

   Send someone to the guest cabins, zone 5, within two minutes. Until they report, it's a fire.

4. Tell the Master

   Tell the Master within five minutes. Even a false alarm in the guest cabins is something the Master needs to know about.

5. All-clear: no general alarm, reset

   Wait for the patrol's report. If they find no fire, there is no general alarm. Mustering everyone for steam only teaches people to ignore the alarm.

   Once the all-clear is in, reset the panel, and check nothing is left in alarm.