M2016-01 Mo­tor­boat fire on Lake Saimaa on 24 July 2016

28.03.2017

An explosive fire took place on a summery evening on 24 July 2016 on Lake Saimaa. Eleven persons were forced to escape the burning boat into the water without any time to call the emergency services or put on their life vests. The boat was completely destroyed and sank.

A boating party of eleven persons had set out on a boating trip on vessel that had been purchased only recently. The party included four adults and eleven children. The party was on their way back home from a daytrip, when the engine of the boat lost power. The boat was stopped on the open lake of Pitkä Pihlajavesi. The owner of the boat, who has also steering the boat, attempted to determine the cause of the engine failure together with another member of the party.

Prior to the engine failure, the owner had paid attention to the exceptionally high fuel consumption of the boat during the boat trip. He came to the conclusion that the engine failure was caused by the lack of fuel, for which reason they added 50 litres of fuel into the fuel tank from spare containers. Adding fuel did not resolve the engine failure.

The hatch of the engine compartment was opened to investigate the cause of engine failure. No leaks or other potential causes for the engine failure could not be detected in the engine compartment. Attempts were made to restart the engine but with not result.

After several attempts, the engine started briefly but stopped again. With the last attempt to start the engine and the subsequent stopping of the engine, a couple of “thumps” could be heard from the engine compartment. At this moment, strong flames erupted and spread from the engine compartment, starting a fire that progressed explosively.

The persons onboard escaped from the vessel by jumping into the water. There were life vests onboard for all passengers. However, at the time of the incident, none of the passengers had time to put their life vest on, to give out any emergency signals or call the emergency number.

A boater nearby noticed the burning vessel and reported this to the emergency services. The fire was also noticed by other boaters and residents at nearby summer cottages. They took immediate action to provide help, and rescued the passengers from the lake into their own boats and took them to an evacuation station set up in Hietasaari car ferry port. Some of the passengers had had to support others while in the water and were therefore extremely exhausted by the time the rescuers arrived. Two of the rescued passenger had suffered burn injuries that required hospital care. The injuries of the remaining passengers only required paramedic care.

Determining the accurate location of the incident became difficult because the location did not have an address. Furthermore, different emergency service operators received multiple and simultaneous calls regarding the same incident. None of those reporting the incident to emergency services used the 112 phone applications, so the location of the incident was determined based on information obtained from eye witnesses.

Once the location of the incident had been determined, the emergency service operator sent out a “vehicle fire, medium severity” call to appropriate rescue authorities. The rescue operators receiving the call did not include voluntary lake rescue operators. As the situation was clarified, the rescue call was updated to “rescue of persons in the water”. Voluntary lake rescue operators, who were on duty nearby, did not receive information about the incident.

Rescue authorities established an evacuation station near the location of accident, in Hietasaari car ferry port. Paramedic units and the police arrived at the evacuation station to provide assistance to the rescued passengers. Based on the situation assessment and decision of the paramedic team leader, two of the passengers who had been onboard the boat were taken to Kuopio University Hospital for further treatment one on a helicopter and one on an ambulance.

The rescue service vessel included in the call for response arrived at the scene after all persons had already been rescued from the water. Their remaining task was to extinguish the fire on the vessel and tow it onshore. During the towing and final extinguishing, the rigging point on the bow of the boat broke and the boat sank.

The probable cause of the fire was a failure in the fuel system, which resulted in the collection of fuel in the engine compartment. The heat of the engine compartment caused the fuel to gasify. The cover had been up, which prevented the ventilation of the cockpit and engine compartment. Eventually the, air-fuel mixture combusted during ignition by a spark created by the electrical system. After this, the fire spread explosively in the cockpit.

As a result of its investigation, the Safety Investigation Authority issues four safety recommendations:

1. It is recommended that the members of the public always protect their mobile devices from getting wet and download the 112 application on them. It is further recommended that the Emergency Response Centre Administration agree on procedure by which the download link for the 112 phone application is added on the websites of rescue authorities and other rescue operators.
2. It is also recommended that the public always wear life vests when onboard a boat, and that, in addition to monitoring the wearing of life vests, the public authorities, boating societies and boaters pay attention to the condition and fit of the life vests.
   
   The wearing of life vests is part of safety onboard. They must be of a correct fit and within easy reach to be put on quickly in case of emergency evacuation or access into the water.
3. The Accident Investigation Board recommends that the Ministry of the Interior instruct rescue authorities to review and, if necessary, create separate responses to accidents on land and water and to include voluntary lake rescue stations and the Saimaa Vessel Traffic Services in their resources within lake districts.
   
   Following this recommendation will improve and speed up the determination of the appropriate response to a call. The response to the “vehicle fire, medium severity” call did not include rescue lifeboat personnel. In this incident, there was a vessel out within close distance with the crew onboard, but they were unaware of the accident.
4. The Accident Investigation Board recommends that the Finnish Transport Safety Agency draw up procedures by which a new owner is provided safety guidance when registering a new vessel. This could be, for example, an online link to the websites maintained by various rescue services or information provided by some other means.
   
   There also exists a wealth of information regarding boat safety available online. Websites providing this information are maintained by, for example, the Finnish Border Guard, the Finnish Transport Safety Agency and the Finnish Transport Agency. The Finnish Transport Agency could urge the public to seek boat safety information in conjunction of the registration of new vessels and the change of ownership.

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