Developing a new approach for analysis and prevention of fire risks due to cargo operations on tanker ships

There are many types of accidents that can occur during maritime activities. Collisions, crashes, fires, explosions, electrical groundings, capsizes, and strandings are at the top of these types of accidents. In particular, fires and explosions in tankers are the most dangerous marine casualties. Although 10 percent of marine casualty deaths are due to fires and fire accidents, in terms of insurance costs, fires rank third after damage caused by collisions and groundings. To prevent fire and explosion accidents that can occur during loading activities on tankers carrying crude oil, chemicals, or petroleum products, safety and risk assessments of these activities should be conducted. Uncertainty, administrative errors, non-compliance with regulations, technical problems, and human error are all causes of accidents that occur during loading activities on tankers. Fires and explosions that occur as a result of these errors lead to accidents that cause human casualties, environmental pollution and economic losses. By taking the necessary measures as a result of maritime risk analysis and assessment, one prepares the ground for eliminating situations that have a negative impact on costs or reduces them to a reasonable level. The objective and purpose of this study is to enhance maritime safety by analyzing the factors that determine the operational risks that may occur on tankers transporting crude oil, chemicals and products. Most risk-related studies have been limited to examining the risks of individual systems. The risks of fires and explosions as a result of marine accidents involving large oil vessels carrying hazardous bulk cargoes and tankers carrying chemical cargoes should be analyzed. While the risk of fire at sea is a major hazard by itself, the measures to be taken for ship types with a high fire risk, such as tankers, should be equally major. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), which organizes the legal requirements for global maritime transport, made some changes to the ISM Code with the 2010 Manila Convention. Owing to these changes, new responsibilities have been placed on shipping companies to address the deficiencies that have resulted from repeated failures. The infrastructure deficiencies of the shipping companies cannot be ignored when it comes to detecting and preventing the risks of fire accidents. In this regard, revealing the causes of risks and deficiencies related to fire accidents will help to implement more effective fire safety measures. Accidents that have occurred in history involving tankers have caused environmental disasters, so tanker accident risks are an important issue to be highlighted. To this end, shipping accidents that occurred between the years 2000-2020 were examined for the study. 288 of the 8820 marine accidents recorded in the databases of the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), the International Maritime Organization - Global Integrated Shipping Information System (IMO GISIS), the Marine Accident Investigators' International Forum (MAIIF), the Japan Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIA), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the United States Coast Guard (USCG), the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the Marine Accidents Investigation Commission-Turkey (DEKIK), and Class Organizations registered are fire accidents that occurred on tankers. For the study, data from 27 accident reports and 11 cumulative annual reports were used, consistent with the theme, purpose, and objectives of the work. In accordance with the reports studied in detail, the risks, causes and fault chains that caused the fire were identified. The ships studied were oil tankers; crude oil tankers, chemical tankers, and product tankers. The analytical methods used in this work and the data obtained are intended to address the safety and firefighting needs of shipping companies. In this way, it is hoped to increase the fire safety of ships and reduce the number of fire accidents, which is the goal of the shipping companies and the relevant authorities. In the category of tanker types that are the subject of the study, discussions and interviews were conducted with 15 shipping companies involved in tanker transport and/or management, officers and engineers working on tankers, academics from the shipping industry, institutions specializing in risk analysis, and risk assessment experts. Fault tree analysis (FTA), event tree analysis (ETA) and bow-tie analysis were used to analyze the fire risks that can occur on tankers and the data obtained to prevent these risks. Human reliability analysis method (SPAR-H) was used to support these analysis methods. The analysis of the obtained data was carried out using the computerized program ISOGRAPH Reliability Workbench and Bow-TiePro. For the determination of fire hazards and risks, the source of important events was reached, threats, consequences, barriers and the location of barriers were analysed and event-specific results were examined and conclusions drawn. To support the bow-tie analysis study, previous risk assessment studies, previous records and standards were examined and computerised programmes were used. The most important finding reached as a result of the analyzes are that the human factor is at the forefront of the root causes by causing accidents. It has been determined that the effect of human error among the factors causing accidents is 88%. In summary, through to this study, a contribution will be made to increase the safety level of tankers, which are essential for the maritime industry. A contribution has been made to the maritime industry regarding the lack of scientific studies on which IMO regulations are based. The results of the study, which will contribute to the maritime community and literature, were obtained as a result of the evaluation of the data obtained. Keyword: Risk Assessment, Tanker, Fire, Explosion, FTA, ETA, Bow-Tie, Cargo Operation, Maritime, Marine Accident