I have rigged fire wires since my cadet days and have seen someone injured while handling one. Yet, after decades of use, I could find no documented case of a fire wire actually being used in an emergency.
Ships will continue complying wherever terminals require them, but the safety case deserves another look. Should emergency tow-off now move towards safer, engineered arrangements?
The whole notion of fire wires to pull the ship off a berth begs the question - to what purpose? Are they going to tow it outside the environment? If the ship is on fire, is hauling it out of reach of shore firefighters, the international shore connection, and either trapping the crew on the ship or preemptively abandoning it a better option than staying tied up?
Also, I liked your article about the difference between bonding and insulation/isolation. I hadn’t recognized that gap in my knowledge until I read that and then did some more research and asked some questions of some terminal operators.
