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Fire safety

Portable fire-fighting equipment and breathing apparatus

Check, service and test extinguishers, breathing sets and fire hoses the way surveyors expect.

7 lessons 1 h 40 min Introductory 3D simulator in every lesson Course completed card

Written by Al Safwan Marine service engineersRules checked 20 October 2026

Start course Preview lesson 1

Lesson 1 is open to everyone. An account (just your email) opens all 7 lessons and saves your progress.

What you'll learn

  • Find the right rule for any piece of portable fire-fighting equipment: SOLAS II-2, the FSS Code, the IMO guidelines or your flag’s notice.
  • Choose and place extinguishers for each fire class, and avoid the agents that make a fire, or the space, more dangerous.
  • Plan and check the annual service, the five-yearly test discharge and the ten-yearly hydraulic test of extinguishers, and spot a unit that must be condemned.
  • Keep SCBA and EEBDs ready for use: weekly and annual checks, breathing air quality, cylinder testing and spare charges.
  • Inspect fire hoses, nozzles, hydrants and the international shore connection the way a surveyor or PSC officer does.
  • Check that fire-fighter’s outfits and fire-party radios meet the FSS Code and the 2014 SOLAS amendments.

Course content

7 lessons · 1 h 40 min total

Lesson 1 is open to everyone. An account opens the rest.

1 The fire safety rulebook: SOLAS II-2 and the FSS Code 14 min · 3D simulator · Quiz Open

You will know which instrument governs each piece of portable fire-fighting equipment, what is mandatory, what is guidance, and who checks it how often.

Open lesson 1

2 Extinguisher types and fire classes on board ships 15 min · 3D simulator · Quiz With an account

You will be able to match each extinguisher type to the fires it suits, explain why some agents are banned from some spaces, and check the number and placement against the rules.

See how lesson 2 starts

3 Inspection, servicing and hydrostatic testing of extinguishers 16 min · 3D simulator · Quiz With an account

You will be able to run or check an extinguisher service against A.951(23), count spare charges correctly and recognise a unit that must be taken out of service.

See how lesson 3 starts

4 SCBA: checks, breathing air quality and cylinder testing 15 min · 3D simulator · Quiz With an account

You will know what a compliant SCBA must have, what to check weekly, monthly and yearly, how breathing air is tested and when cylinders must be hydrostatically tested.

See how lesson 4 starts

5 EEBDs: what they are for and how they are checked 13 min · 3D simulator · Quiz With an account

You will know what an EEBD may and may not be used for, how many a ship needs and where, and how to check, test and replace them.

See how lesson 5 starts

6 Fire hoses, nozzles, hydrants and the international shore connection 14 min · 3D simulator · Quiz With an account

You will be able to check a ship's hydrants, hoses, nozzles and international shore connection against SOLAS and the FSS Code, and plan their monthly to five-yearly tests.

See how lesson 6 starts

7 The fire-fighter's outfit and the two-way radio requirement 13 min · 3D simulator · Quiz With an account

You will be able to check a fire-fighter's outfit item by item, count and place outfits correctly, and confirm that fire-party radios meet SOLAS regulation II-2/10.10.4.

See how lesson 7 starts

Course completed card
With your name and a link anyone can checkAt the end

Inside a lesson

Every lesson in this course has the same five steps: a primer, a 3D tour of the part (Watch it), the reading, a task you do on the 3D machine yourself (Try it) and a short quiz. 7 lessons use this simulator.

A ship's fire station: extinguishers of every type, breathing apparatus, an EEBD, the fire-fighter's outfit locker and a hydrant with its hose

Who this is for

  • Deck officers
  • Engineers
  • Superintendents
  • Service technicians
  • Surveyors

No experience needed: every lesson starts with a short primer in plain words.

Your Course completed card

Finish every lesson to get a Course completed card with your name and a QR code anyone can scan to verify.

Share it on LinkedIn, WhatsApp and elsewhere, or download the picture.

It shows you completed online familiarisation training. It is not a certificate or an STCW, flag-approved or manufacturer qualification, and it doesn't replace that training.

About this course

A portable fire extinguisher with its pressure gauge, checked during an annual service
Our annual fire-fighting equipment service at Port-Jérôme, France.

Fire safety is the largest single group of port state control findings. In the Paris MoU region, deficiencies under SOLAS chapter II-2 made up 17.2% of everything inspectors recorded in 2024. During the joint Tokyo MOU and Paris MoU fire safety campaign in 2023, Tokyo MOU inspectors alone logged 392 deficiencies against “fire fighting equipment and appliances”. Much of that is the kit in this course: extinguishers, hoses and nozzles, breathing apparatus, escape sets and fire-fighter’s outfits.

Neglected equipment does more than fail a survey. In 2022 a deck officer on a tanker was killed when a 17-year-old foam extinguisher, condemned for corrosion, burst at its base as he discharged it. The flag state investigation found that eight badly corroded extinguishers had been passed at the ship’s annual service, only for the crew to condemn them two weeks later.

The course works from the regulations themselves: SOLAS chapter II-2, the Fire Safety Systems (FSS) Code, IMO’s maintenance guidelines (MSC.1/Circ.1432 as amended and resolution A.951(23)) and the flag notices that tighten them. Each lesson gives the rules with citations, the intervals and numbers you need on deck, the findings inspectors write up most often, and a short exercise.

Written by Al Safwan Marine's service engineers from SOLAS, the IMO codes and circulars, and class and flag rules. The sources are listed at the end of every lesson.

3D

Lifeboats and liferafts

Lifeboat safety and the rules

Why lifeboats hurt people, which rules keep crews safe, and what to check, log and leave to specialists.

8 lessons1 h 30 minIntroductory

Ready? Lesson 1 takes 14 minutes.

Free during our launch period. On your phone or computer, no password.

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Portable fire-fighting equipment7 lessons
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