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Accident Investigation Report 2/2015 (CO poisoning)

Staarek

By Staarek
in Living Afloat

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John Williamson 1955 Rising Star

John Williamson 1955

Posted
Posted

Carbon monoxide problems come up on all the boat forums I follow regularly, I know, but this one wasn't a stove, it was a generator running in the engine bay on a boat. Two dead, one ill, mainly because the guy used solder to fasten an exhaust together and the fitted carbon monoxide alarms had been disconnected possibly when their service life had expired 7 years before the incident and they started generating false alarms.

 

http://www.maib.gov.uk/publications/investigation_reports/2015/arniston.cfm

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MtB Veteran II

MtBDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted

This is form London boaters fb page. Very sad, but worth a read as many of us use generators and some of us have them "built in".

 

http://www.maib.gov.uk/publications/investigation_reports/2015/arniston.cfm

 

 

Well let's hope you all 'un-build them in' immediately.

 

Bodging a Heath Robinson exhaust extension onto an air cooled genny designed for outside use is asking for trouble, as illustrated by this appalling incident.

 

Somehow I doubt many people will though. All believe it won't happen to them.

 

MtB

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Idunhoe Community Regular

Idunhoe

Posted
Posted (edited)

Everyone with a portable jenny must read this.

It may be an old chestnut but in my humble opinion one that cannot be re-emphasised too often.

 

Edited to correct predictive text

Edited by Idunhoe
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Rich Rising Star

Rich

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Posted

CO poisoning is something that happens to other people. Bit like smoking or driving like an idiot.

 

I know of a boat, with a solid fuel stove, where the occupants block up the roof ventilators when it rains heavily so that the odd few drops of rain don't bounce up inside the mushroom and fall on them. It has been pointed out that this is not a very clever thing to do but they know better.

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John Williamson 1955 Rising Star

John Williamson 1955

Posted
Posted

Hopefully the OP of the thread a few days ago, asking about fitting a Honda Generator in his engine hole will read this and heed.

 

Edit - PM'd the OP of the following thread

 

http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=73341&hl=

Blimey, not only a Honda generator, but LPG in the engine bay. Two ways to die.

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MtB Veteran II

MtBDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted

Blimey, not only a Honda generator, but LPG in the engine bay. Two ways to die.

 

Which raises an interesting problem. If a BSS bod encounters something downright dangerous like a portable LPG genny installed in an engine bay, does he have any obligation or authority to do anything about it?

 

Or must he just issue a FAIL and leave the muppet to cruise on up the cut?

 

 

MtB

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Sabcat Rising Star

Sabcat

Posted
Posted

CO poisoning is something that happens to other people. Bit like smoking or driving like an idiot.

 

I know of a boat, with a solid fuel stove, where the occupants block up the roof ventilators when it rains heavily so that the odd few drops of rain don't bounce up inside the mushroom and fall on them. It has been pointed out that this is not a very clever thing to do but they know better.

 

I'm not sure lack of ventilation and a solid fuel stove would cause CO poisoning, surely the CO produced by the stove should go outside the boat.

 

 

I know there's no BSS requirement for CO alarms and I'm not sure that there should be but perhaps a piece of paper issued with every certificate that advises people that if they don't have a CO alarm they're idiots and they might die. It's not even as though they're expensive. The one I've got tells me the temperature as well.

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MtB Veteran II

MtBDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted

 

I'm not sure lack of ventilation and a solid fuel stove would cause CO poisoning, surely the CO produced by the stove should go outside the boat.

 

 

Not necessarily. A flue will only work if there is also an air supply into the room, to replace the combustion gases going up the flue. In a sealed room the combustion gases just ooze out of the appliance. The CO also production rises as the oxygen level in the room atmosphere reduces from lack of fresh air entering the room.

 

 

MtB

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Sabcat Rising Star

Sabcat

Posted
Posted

 

Not necessarily. A flue will only work if there is also an air supply into the room, to replace the combustion gases going up the flue. In a sealed room the combustion gases just ooze out of the appliance. The CO also production rises as the oxygen level in the room atmosphere reduces from lack of fresh air entering the room.

 

 

MtB

 

That makes sense. I imagine it would get very unpleasant very quickly in a boat without enough ventilation to feed a stock then

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John Williamson 1955 Rising Star

John Williamson 1955

Posted
Posted

If your flue or ventilation is blocked and you're using a solid fuel stove, you get a combined build up of partial combustion products, which make your eyes water, carbon dioxide, which makes you short of breath, and if you're lucky, not quite enough carbon monoxide to kill you before the fumes drive you outside.

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Sabcat Rising Star

Sabcat

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I'm not sure it's unpleasant at the time. The boat is warm, as oxygen levels fall you get drowsy, fall asleep, oxygen depletes further, CO builds up and you die peacefully in your sleep. The unpleasant bit is for the people that find you.

 

Suicide be piss poor boat design. I imagine a boat set up like that or close to it would a condensation nightmare.

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Rich Rising Star

Rich

Posted
Posted

If your flue or ventilation is blocked and you're using a solid fuel stove, you get a combined build up of partial combustion products, which make your eyes water, carbon dioxide, which makes you short of breath, and if you're lucky, not quite enough carbon monoxide to kill you before the fumes drive you outside.

I am sure these are all pertinent comments, but, my view is that it is a bloody silly thing to do and definitely not to be tried.

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