
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) has issued a Safety Alert to emphasize the importance of properly installed and maintained listed or certified safe electrical equipment in hazardous areas in order to reduce the risk of fire or explosion onboard vessels. Publication follows an increasing number of instances by the Coast Guard where there was a lack of knowledge regarding the installation, training, maintenance and inspection of these certified systems.
Electrical equipment in hazardous areas is common; for example, 12% of all deficiencies written to gas carriers involved hazardous area electrical equipment.
PSC Officers (PSCOs) have found certified safe equipment improperly installed or identified missing components, which compromises the certification of the system and nullifies this critical protection in a flammable environment. In other cases, PSCOs found degraded components and evidence of equipment not being maintained or inspected. Continue reading “USCG safety alert to address electrical installations knowledge gap issued”