
A vessel cook dinner receives burns from oil spill on account of defective thermostat, stories an IMCA security flash.
What occurred?
On an offshore assist vessel, a cook dinner was deep-frying fish in a shallow-sided gimballed “gyro” frying pan. Unbeknown to the cook dinner the pan’s thermostat was defective. The oil overheated, began smoking and ignited shortly afterwards. The cook dinner activated the fastened moist chemical fire-extinguishing system. Because the moist chemical stuffed the gimballed frying pan the burning oil spilled out onto the galley deck, overlaying the cook dinner’s legs and toes in boiling oil.
The cook dinner collapsed to the deck of the galley, shouting for assist. The cook dinner’s screams had been heard by a passing crew particular person, who bumped into the galley and dragged the cook dinner out of hazard. The moist chemical had efficiently extinguished the fireplace within the pan, however had made a multitude of the galley and severely injured the cook dinner.
The electrical provide to the gyro pan was remoted and the oil was left to chill within the pan earlier than being eliminated. The cook dinner was airlifted to hospital and handled for burns.
What went unsuitable?
The cook dinner routinely used the gyro pans to fry fish as a result of the galley’s two deep fats fryers took a very long time to warmth up and wanted quite a lot of oil. The MAIB notes {that a} gyro pan is unsuitable to be used as a deep fats fryer as a result of danger of oil splashing or spilling out over the shallow sides.
The thermostat was defective. Security gadgets reminiscent of thermostats can malfunction, resulting in unsafe conditions if solely relied on.
The activation of the fastened firefighting system put in above the pan brought on the recent oil to spill out over the shallow sides when the moist chemical was deployed. Emergency methods and home equipment may not operate as anticipated on contact with incorrectly used gear – this had severe penalties on this occasion.
Classes to be taught
The cook dinner used a doubtlessly hazardous work-around as a result of the opposite gear took too lengthy to make use of. The office must be designed to make it straightforward to do issues safely quite than straightforward to do issues unsafely.
Cease and assume: why are we taking a short-cut? May there be unknown hazards concerned? Can we discover a solution to make the short-cut pointless, and if not, can we make it fully secure?
Usually test and preserve gear, notably gear with thermostats or different security cut-offs.
If an equipment turns into hotter than anticipated, ensure it’s reported to, and examined by, appropriately educated personnel.
At all times use gear for its supposed design objective and according to producer’s steerage.
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Supply: IMCA

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