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Fixed fire systemsLesson 8 of 8

The fire safety maintenance plan: weekly to ten-yearly

You will be able to build or audit a fire safety maintenance plan that covers every fixed system, splits crew work from specialist work, and stands up to a survey or PSC inspection.

15 minutes · For signed-up learners, free · Rules checked 20 October 2026

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Every lesson so far has ended with a schedule: weekly lamp tests, monthly samples of detectors, quarterly damper tests, annual foam samples, two-yearly CO2 weighing, five-yearly valve inspections, ten and twenty-yearly cylinder tests. On a real ship all of these run at once, across a dozen systems, done partly by the crew and partly by visiting technicians, and checked by the class surveyor and any port State control officer who walks up the gangway.

SOLAS regulation II-2/14 asks for one thing that ties it together: a maintenance plan, kept on board and available for inspection. In the 2012 joint Paris and Tokyo MOU campaign on fire safety systems, the question “Is there a maintenance plan on board to show that fire protection systems and fire-fighting systems and appliances have been properly tested and inspected?” was answered “no” in 5.5% of Tokyo MOU inspections. This lesson shows how to make sure your ship is never in that group.

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The rest of this lesson, the interactive Fixed fire systems from weekly to twenty-yearly and the quiz are open to signed-up learners. It's free, takes a minute, and opens every lesson in all 14 courses.

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In this lesson

  • Try it: Fixed fire systems from weekly to twenty-yearly
  • In plain words
  • In detail
  • What the rules say
  • Flag and class notes
  • Key numbers
  • What inspectors find
  • Questions people ask
  • Quiz: 6 questions

Sources

  1. 1 IMO MSC.1/Circ.1432, Revised guidelines for the maintenance and inspection of fire protection systems and appliances (31 May 2012), as amended by MSC.1/Circ.1516 (8 June 2015), annex, sections 1 to 10 (consolidated copy annexed to Cayman Islands Shipping Notice 01/2014 Rev 2). https://www.cishipping.com/system/files/notices/documents/CISN%202014_01%20Rev%202%20with%20Annex.pdf
  2. 2 IMO MSC.1/Circ.1318/Rev.1, Revised guidelines for the maintenance and inspections of fixed carbon dioxide fire-extinguishing systems (25 May 2021), annex, sections 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7. https://www.mardep.gov.hk/en/msnote/pdf/msin2136anx1.pdf
  3. 3 IMO Resolution MSC.99(73), revised SOLAS chapter II-2 (adopted 5 December 2000, in force 1 July 2002), regulation II-2/14 (Operational readiness and maintenance), paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 4, as amended. https://wwwcdn.imo.org/localresources/en/KnowledgeCentre/IndexofIMOResolutions/MSCResolutions/MSC.99(73).pdf
  4. 4 IMO Resolution A.1186(33), Survey guidelines under the Harmonized System of Survey and Certification (HSSC), 2023 (adopted 6 December 2023), annex, (EA) 1.2.2 and (EP) 1.3.2. https://wwwcdn.imo.org/localresources/en/KnowledgeCentre/IndexofIMOResolutions/AssemblyDocuments/A.1186(33).pdf
  5. 5 Republic of the Marshall Islands Maritime Administrator, Marine Notice 2-011-14 (Rev. Aug/2025), sections 1, 3 and 12. https://www.register-iri.com/wp-content/uploads/MN-2-011-14.pdf
  6. 6 Bahamas Maritime Authority, Marine Notice 79, Firefighting Equipment, version 2.2 (20 November 2025), sections 10 and 11. https://www.classnk.or.jp/hp/pdf/activities/statutory/solas/solas_treaty/fire_protection/circular/ci_fi_bahama.pdf
  7. 7 Panama Maritime Authority, Merchant Marine Circular MMC-281 (October 2025), paragraphs 3 and 4.1.2. https://flagadmin.com/upload/userfiles/Panama/MMC-281-OCTOBER-2025-CM.pdf
  8. 8 Tokyo MOU, Report of the 2012 Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on Fire Safety Systems (November 2013), section 3, questions 5a and 5b. https://www.tokyo-mou.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/Final-Tokyo-MOU-Report-FSS-CIC-public-web-site.pdf
  9. 9 Tokyo MOU, Annual Report on Port State Control in the Asia-Pacific Region 2023, results of the 2023 CIC on Fire Safety, as summarised by SAFETY4SEA. https://safety4sea.com/tokyo-mou-psc-annual-report-2023

Free awareness training. Al Safwan Marine is not an approved training provider, so no certificate is given, and these courses are not a qualification. They don't replace STCW training, manufacturer training or the certification technicians need for this work. The manufacturer's manual and your flag's rules always come first.

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