Merchant Shipping Act, 1951 (Act No. 57 of 1951)

Schedules

Second Schedule

Protocol of 1978 Relating to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974

Annex

Chapter II-2 : Construction—Fire Protection, Fire Detection and Fire Extinction

Part C — Fire Safety Measures for Passenger Ships Carrying not more than 36 Passengers

Regulation 48 : Means of escape

Purchase

(a)	In and from all passenger and crew spaces and spaces in which crew are normally employed, other than machinery spaces, stairways and ladderways shall be arranged so as to provide ready means of escape to the lifeboat embarkation deck. In particular the following precautions shall be complied with:

(i)

Below the bulkhead deck, two means of escape, at least one of which shall be independent of watertight doors, shall be provided for each watertight compartment or similarly restricted space or group of spaces. One of these means of escape may be dispensed with by the Administration, due regard being paid to the nature and the location of spaces concerned, and to the number of persons who normally might be quartered or employed there;

(ii)	above the bulkhead deck, there shall be at least two practical means of escape from each main vertical zone or similarly restricted space or group of spaces at least one of which shall give access to a stairway forming a vertical escape; and

(iii)

at least one of the means of escape shall be by means of a readily accessible enclosed stairway, which shall provide as far as practicable continuous fire shelter from the level of its origin to the lifeboat embarkation deck. The width, number and continuity of the stairways shall be to the satisfaction of the Administration.

(b)

In machinery spaces, two means of escape, one of which may be a watertight door, shall be provided from each engine room, shaft tunnel and boiler room. In machinery spaces, where no watertight door is available, the two means of escape shall be formed by two sets of steel ladders as widely separated as possible leading to doors in the casing similarly separated and from which access is provided to the embarkation deck. In the case of ships of less than 2 000 tons gross tonnage, the Administration may dispense with this requirement, due regard being paid to the width and the disposition of the casing.