Revision: Fire Prevention & Fire Fighting (Basic) — STCW Table A-VI/1-2

Revision card — STCW Code Table A-VI/1-2, Fire Prevention and Fire Fighting. Mandatory Basic Safety Training module for every seafarer; the core competence is stated plainly in the table itself — minimise the risk of fire and maintain a state of readiness to respond to emergency situations involving fire. Refresher required every 5 years for anyone with designated safety or fire-fighting duties, which in practice means almost everyone.

Fire Chemistry & Classes — Know These Cold

• The fire triangle — heat, fuel, oxygen. Remove any one side and the fire goes out; every extinguishing method works by attacking one or more sides.
• Class A — ordinary combustibles (wood, paper, textiles, most cabin/accommodation fires) — water is the primary agent
• Class B — flammable liquids (fuel oil, paints, solvents) — foam, CO2 or dry powder; never water, which spreads a liquid fire
• Class C — flammable gases — isolate the supply first if at all possible, then dry powder/CO2
• Class D — combustible metals (rare shipboard, but examined) — specialist dry powder agents only
• Electrical fires — treated as their own hazard class in IMO/UK guidance — isolate power first, then CO2 or dry powder; never water on a live electrical fire

Shipboard Fire-Fighting Organisation

• Know your muster list role cold — fire party, boundary cooling team, or emergency squad — before you ever need it under pressure
• Know the location of firefighting appliances (extinguishers, hydrants, hose reels, fixed system controls) and emergency escape routes on your own vessel without needing to think about it
• Fire and smoke detection — automatic alarm systems, and what your first actions are on hearing the fire alarm versus the general emergency alarm

Appliances & Systems

• Portable extinguishers — matching the correct type to the class of fire is the single most commonly tested practical skill
• Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) — correct donning, air management, buddy system for any fire party entering smoke-logged spaces
• Fixed systems — CO2 flooding (with mandatory space evacuation and headcount before release), foam systems, sprinklers, water mist — know which system protects which space on a typical vessel
• Boundary cooling — cooling the structure around a fire (especially adjacent to fuel tanks or cargo) to prevent spread, even while the fire itself is being fought directly

Quick Self-Check

• Why is water the wrong first response to a Class B fire, and what should you use instead?
• What has to happen before a fixed CO2 system is released into a space?
• Can you name your own muster list fire role without checking the list?

Related Reading

• Vessel Fire Safety — Maritime Insurance Data 2026 — the real-world scale of shipboard fire risk behind this competence
• Lithium-Ion Batteries & Thermal Runaway Fire Risk — a fire hazard the basic Class A-D framework doesn't neatly cover
• Finnmaster — The Fire CO2 Couldn't Reach — a real MAIB case testing exactly where the limits of fixed systems and boundary cooling lie