Fixed fire-extinguishing systems stop
engine room blazes quickly

An uncontrolled engine-room fire is the most dire emergency aboard. Fueled by petroleum or oil in an enclosed space, the fire can quickly destroy the boat and is almost impossible to stop if it’s not extinguished literally within seconds.
That’s why automatic fixed fire-extinguishing systems are so important, whether the boat is an 18-foot inboard-powered runabout or a 200-foot megayacht. Fire-suppression systems fill the engine compartment with a gas agent that chokes off the fire, yet doesn’t damage the equipment. A small bulb filled with liquid is connected to an activation switch, and when the temperature reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit, the liquid in the bulb expands and the bulb breaks. The extinguishing gas is released and the fire is quickly snuffed out.
In the United States, Fireboy-Xintex and Sea-Fire are two leading marine fire-suppression companies. They work with boat builders to include their product on new launches, offer their products through stores like West Marine and Lewis Marine and also have them installed at marine-service yards through their dealer networks. A system for a 20-foot inboard boat you install yourself costs around $400.
Fire-suppression on recreational boats went mainstream in the 1970s, and the fire-extinguishing product of the day was Halon gas. Halon worked well but in 1992 its production was stopped because it was deemed an ozone-depleting product. Nowadays a product called FM-200 manufactured by DuPont is used by both Fireboy and Sea-Fire.
Fire-suppression systems are not required by the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard does require all boats to carry fire extinguishers, but these hand-held units offer little help against an enclosed fire in the engine room. About the worst thing you can do with an engine room fire is fling open the engine hatch and let in more air. Some boats have three-inch diameter fire ports cut into the engine compartment bulkheads, large enough so you can stick the nozzle of a handheld extinguisher inside and spray the agent. It’s not the best solution, but it’s better than nothing.
“You need to flood the compartment space quickly when a fire is realized so you can minimize the damage,” said Ernie Ellis, President of Sea-Fire. “Now we offer an early warning system with heat sensors in the engine room and a warning display typically at the helm. You get an audio and visual high-temperature warning that tells you something wrong is going on in the engine room.”
Fireboy has also developed an early warning system and their product is similar to smoke and fire detectors in homes.
“Fire detection aboard the entire boat is important, and our new FR-4000 offers early warning of a fire throughout the boat,” said Larry Akins, owner of Fireboy. “You’ve got smoke detectors throughout your home, and a boat is more dangerous in terms of a fire. In a 40-foot boat you may have five smoke detectors and a heat detector in the engine room. The cost of the FR-4000 system is about $2,000.”
Early warning systems allow you to act fast. While fully automatic, the fixed-suppressions systems also allow you to manually trigger the release of FM-200 into the engine room by pulling an external cable. That way, if you see smoke you can stop damage even more quickly. Fireboy and Sea-Fire also offer an automatic shutdown of your engines, generators and fans if the fire-suppression system is triggered.
Today, the use of FM-200 as a popular worldwide extinguishing agent is under review. While FM-200 is clean and safe for people and legal in the U.S., it is in a class of hydro fluorocarbons that has been targeted by environmental groups as having global warming potential. Countries such as Denmark and Norway are now placing taxes on hydro fluorocarbons.
“This had led to a new product by 3M called Novec 1230,” Sea-Fire’s Ellis said. “It’s efficient, clean, and safe for people and has all the attributes of FM-200, but from a global warming prospective it is virtually zero. We are coming out in November with a product that uses Novec 1230.”  fireboy-xintex.com  / sea-fire.com