Fires Involving Containerised Cargoes of Charcoal

In recent months, Burgoynes has investigated several fires involving containerised cargoes of charcoal.  Jim Mercurio, an associate at our Dubai office, has written an article on this topic.

Hazards Associated With Carriage Of Mineral Cargoes, Including Sodium Metabisulfite

Three of our marine investigators, David Robbins, Darren Holling and Jim Mercurio, have prepared a technical article 

Britannia Loss Prevention Insight - Electric Vehicle Fires

Darren Holling, a Partner at our Singapore office, has recently published an article with Britannia P&I titled Electric Vehicle Fires, an Overview for the Maritime Sector.

Master's Guide to Fire Safety on Ferries

Frank Anderson, a partner at our Kenilworth office, assisted Standard Club with the revised version of the Master's Guide to Fire Safety on Ferries 2021.  This latest edition was published recently and can be downloaded from the

MSC FLAMINIA – A brief account of an investigation

More than six years after a catastrophic and fatal explosion on the MSC FLAMINIA container ship, the principal court cases on cause and liability

A Master's Guide to Fire Safety on Ferries

Burgoynes' partner, Frank Anderson, has worked with Standard Club and Lloyds Register  to publish A Master's Guide to Fire Safety on Ferries. Read this article to find out more.

The Swedish Club: Don’t Overlook the Risk of Cargo Fires

Cargo fires occur so infrequently that awareness of the risk can slip under the radar. Yet such an incident on board a vessel can have disastrous consequences including loss of life or catastrophic loss of the

Risk Focus: Engine Room Fires

Burgoynes' Chris Foster, Frank Anderson and Neil Sanders have teamed up with Thomas Miller to produce the UK P&I Club's latest Risk Focus on Engine Room Fires. Engine room fires are one of the most common fires on ships owing to the presence of a wide range of sources of fuel,

Coal Cargoes - Some Recent Developments

Recently, we have been involved in incidents where gas readings have shown that loaded coal exhibits not only self-heating characteristics but also significant methane emission... 

UPDATE ON THE OCEAN CARRIAGE OF CALCIUM HYPOCHLORITE

Changes to the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code

There are three specific categories of calcium hypochlorite and calcium hypochlorite mixtures defined in the IMDG Code.  For the purposes of this note it is taken as read that whenever reference is made to the chemical, the same applies to the mixtures.

THE CARRIAGE AND POTENTIAL HAZARDS OF NPK FERTILIZERS

Current global nitrogen fertilizer use is of the order of 100 million tonnes per annum, a proportion of which is transported by sea. Because plants require nutrients other than nitrogen, however, a range of compound or complex fertilizer formulations have been developed which contain more than one of the three main plant nutrients:

MAJOR REVISION TO BC CODE SCHEDULE FOR THE CARRIAGE OF THE DIRECT REDUCED IRON (DRI) AND DERIVATIVES BY SEA

DRI is produced by passing hot reducing gases such as hydrogen, methane and carbon monoxide over iron ore (oxide), which is usually in the form of pellets or lumps. Although the process is conducted at high temperatures, these are still substantially below the melting point of iron.

SELF-HEATING COAL CARGOES - INDONESIA

We have been contacted for advice increasingly frequently in the past two years in connection with coal shipments from Indonesia: in just the past couple of months we have dealt with six incidents involving heating coal cargoes from Kalimantan.

CHRIS FOSTER - DANGEROUS GOODS CARGOES

This article was written by Dr Christopher Foster for the Swedish Club and is reproduced with their kind permission.

DRI BY ANY OTHER NAME

Operators of bulk fleets will be aware of Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) and of the appropriate precautions that must be taken to ensure its safe carriage by sea.  However, we are aware of a number of shippers who are offering a material for bulk shipment that is clearly a DRI product, but is claimed to be safe for bulk carriage by sea without the usual precautions.  However, we are also aware of two explosions, and a potential explosion, in the past year that have occurred on vessels that were carrying this cargo.

MARINE COLLISIONS AND THE FORENSIC EXAMINATION OF PAINT SAMPLES

There are instances where a vessel is alleged to have collided with a fixed or moving object and where the witness evidence, or lack of it, requires support by an examination of the physical evidence. In such cases the physical evidence most often relied upon is that provided by a comparison of paint samples taken from the vessel and the object with which it is alleged to have collided. As forensic chemists many of our consultants have a detailed knowledge of paint comparisons including their chemical analysis, largely through dealing with vehicle accident work for the police, such as in pedestrian hit-and-run cases.