The Paris Memorandum of Understanding (Paris MoU) on Port State Control (PSC) carried out a
Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on Fire Safety in collaboration with the Tokyo MOU from 1
September to 30 November2023. During the CIC, member Authorities focused on compliance with areas
specified by the CIC during PSC inspections. This report documents the results of the campaign for the
Maritime Authorities of the Paris MoU.
A Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on Fire Safety was conducted in view of an annual recurrence
of a high number of deficiencies related to fire safety.
A CIC questionnaire was devised and approved by the Paris MoU Port State Control Committee. The
intention of the questionnaire was to provide a supplementary series of questions to the regular inspection process to specifically address areas where there are reoccurring deficiencies with respect to fire safety.
The questions provided additional guidance to Port State Control Officers (PSCO) to help:
determine if ships meet the mandatory requirements for fire safety prescribed in the International
Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) and the International Code for Fire Safety
Systems (FSS Code); and
foster consistent and harmonized inspection and implementation of the requirements by all
PSCOs.
The objective of the CIC was to verify the level of compliance and create awareness with the requirements
of Fire Safety. Fire Safety is considered an inspection item for PSC inspections. During the CIC, a total of
3856 inspections were carried out with the questionnaire. The CIC-topic detention rate in the period was
3.9% (151 ships were detained).
Of the CIC related detentions, the highest number of ships detained were Comoros and Marshall Islands
Flagged (5 each) followed by Togo and Antiqua and Barbuda (4 each).
Of the Paris MoU member Authorities, the United Kingdom reported the highest number of CIC related
deficiencies (251) followed by Italy (228) and Belgium (199). Italy detained the highest number of ships for
CIC-related deficiencies (86). It is important to note however that these numbers are not proportional to the number of inspections done by the members.
The report concludes that the results of the CIC indicate that the industry has achieved a good level of
compliance with the specific provisions inspected during the CIC of Fire Safety. However, this should be
considered in the context that the industry was informed well in advance of the intention to carry out CIC in this area.
It is recommended that industry collaborates with crews and flag States to enhance awareness regarding
the CIC topics of the recent CIC, with particular attention brought to the requirements that raised the most concern in the CIC relating to fire doors and fire drills (crew performance).
