200941 Galley fire

Galley fire
MARS Report 200941

  Just before noon, the cook was making French fries in a deep aluminium cooking pan, placed over the hot plate. When the potatoes were added to the hot oil, the pan was overfilled and some oil overflowed and landed on to the hot plate. The temperature of this was sufficient to cause the oil to auto-ignite. The flames immediately spread, causing the oil vapour in the pan also to ignite.

The cook instantly drew out the fire blanket from its container in the galley and covered the pan with it. However, the spilled oil on the hot plate continued to burn around the covered pan, so he removed it, still-covered, and doused the flames on the hot plate with a wet towel. He telephoned the bridge to alert the OOW of the situation, by which time the fire had been extinguished with no damage to the galley or injury to personnel.

 

 

Root cause/contributory factors
Lack of company standard: the vessel was not fitted with a stand-alone deep fat fryer, resulting in the unsafe practice of open deep frying over a hot plate;
There was too much oil in the cooking pan before potato chips were added.

What went right
Galley staff commended for prompt and effective action.

What went wrong
No alarm was raised and crew was not mustered in an organised manner.

Corrective/preventative actions
Management to consider fitting stand-alone deep fat fryers in all newbuildings.
Cooks to use deeper cooking pans and smaller quantities of oil when cooking potato chips.
Fleet to discuss the incident at safety meeting and determine the circumstances under which the fire alarm should be activated and fire party mobilised. Also to impress upon crews that the fire party should be standing by for some time after the fire is extinguished to prevent re-ignition. 

Feedback in November 2009 issue of Seaways.