Unifire Presentation of New SOLAS & FSS Requirements for Ro-Ro Passenger Ship Weather Decks

Unifire’s General Counsel, Roger Barrett James, presents the legal and practical requirements of the newly-anticipated SOLAS regulations and Fire Safety Systems Code (FSS Code) as they relate to ro-ro passenger (ro-pax) ship weather deck fire protection.

The new SOLAS Regulations and FSS Code were approved in June, 2023, and are expected to be adopted in May, 2024. In sort, the new provisions will require that all ro-ro passenger ship weather decks be protected by fire detection and fire monitors.

The presentation also summarizes the key findings of the LASH FIRE (lashfire.eu) 3-year research project exploring state-of-the-art equipment and techniques for improving fire safety on weather decks of ro-ro / ro-pax ships. Unifire was a partner in the work packages of the study relating to fire detection and fire suppression on weather decks, and Mr. James was a co-author of a number of the reports related to these topics.