Do You Run The Bilge Blower While Fueling?

Question

In the news recently was a explosion and fire on a 30 ft. boat. There where 6 kids ages 5 to 13 and their parents inboard. There what a thump and explosion and fire. The parents immediately threw the kids overboard and then threw them life jackets. The obsolete "Halon system" extinguished the fire. During an interview after everyone was rescued the owner insisted he "ran the blower continuously" while fueling and when he he attempted to restart his engine. When I heard that, I thought, that's wrong. Is it?

Answer 1

Yep, that's wrong, dangerous, and potentially lethal. Even though the blower motor is rated spark proof, the switch, and connections are not. This is Transport Canadas' "safe refueling checklist:



Safe Fueling Precautions

1. Secure boat to the dock.

2. Switch off engine(s).

3. Extinguish all open flames.

4. Do not use electrical switches.

5. No smoking.

6. Close ports, hatches, and doors.

7. Portable tanks should be refueled ashore.

8. Make certain all passengers are ashore.

9. Determine quantity of fuel required.

10. Hold hose nozzle firmly against fill pipe opening.

11. Do not overfill. Prevent fuel from falling into the water during fueling. This can harm the marine environment.

12. Wipe up all spillage.

13. Open ports, hatches, and doors to ventilate.

14. Turn blower on for four minutes minimum.

15. Do the sniff test.

16.Start engines(s).

17. Re-board passengers.

18. Untie from dock and cast off.



So, the boat operator in question not only should have had all devices turned off, but also should have had his family ashore while refueling.



Not sure about other areas, but in Canada it's actually illegal to refuel your own boat at a marina, the marina staff must refuel, and cannot refuel any vessel while passengers are aboard.



Good question, Richard, hopefully by posting this a few incidents will be prevented. A boat fire is an ugly thing.

Answer 2

The answer is No never run any electrical device while fueling because the motor brushes can produce arcs electric sparks and thus an explosion can happen. The best method is fuel first, open the engine compartment, If you can. allow fresh air a little time to clear fumes, run blower for at least one minute. close hatch, in case of fire the hatch will help contain fire. start engine or engines run blower until ready to cast off. This has worked for me with eight boats over the past twenty years. I was on the Erie canal two years ago when a cuddy cabin pulled up to the fuel dock. I had just cleared the breakwall when the boat exploded killing the girl that was working the fuel dock. The official report was the driver started the boat and did not run the blowers before hand. causing the fire. As I stated I have been clearing the air in the compartment before starting for years with no issues and will always do so. Be safe have fun Chris.

Answer 3

Have to agree with the general thoughts on this. Do not run anything electrical whilst fuelling unless it is intrinsically safe.

I do also have to post the comment, that if there were sufficient fumes within the bilges, to put the mixture of petroleum and air into the explosion zone, then there was a problem in the fuel system or there had been a spill. There is also the possibility that the engine was not correctly maintained. (See my answer to Capt. John's question, my case was an explosion in the carburetter which blue out the fuel inlet pipe.)



Main lessons learnt are :- take all precautions when fuelling, The Canadian Check list is a good one.

Make sure that you have sufficient life jackets for all crew members.

Make sure that your fire extinguisher system works.

During fuelling the only electrical equipment in use must be intrinsically safe.

Finally check every system before getting underway.

Answer 4

Bilge Blower

Answer 5

It seems to me that starting the blower before fueling and continuing throughout is the safest procedure. The blower itself should be ignition protected (what we used to call "explosion proof", meaning that any flame generated internally will not propagate to the outside of the housing), and starting it up before beginning fueling means that there will be no switch operations to cause a spark until after fueling is finished and the bilge is thoroughly ventilated.



The suggested method of starting the blower *after* fueling introduces a spark into an environment which has not yet been completely purged (else why bother to run the blower at all).



I'd be interested in rational discussion on this.

Answer 6

The purpose for a bilge blower is to ventilate the engine compartment and bilge of the craft to exhaust any potentially hazardous fumes before starting the engine(s). Unless the blower was defective, I see no reason why it should not have been on during refueling and before starting the engines.



If the Halon fire suppression system worked properly to extinguish the fire, then it wasn't "obsolete"

Answer 7

Per Harry's post about Canada, and Captain John, I throw the main breaker before fuelling, and run the blower (a retrofit on a 1970's UK sailboat) after the hose is back ashore, while I'm ashore paying.



Took me a while to find the version that actually said he ran the blower while fuelling.

As the explosion happened after they left the dock, naturally all the passengers were aboard.



The most obvious takeaway from this is "don't sit on the engine compartment" (if you have a choice)

Answer 8

Yes it was WRONG to have the bilge blower running while refueling.



I never have any thing electric running when refueling. In fact, I have 2 switches - 1 main electrical "master switch" which cuts off "all" electric except my automatic bilge pumps, and since they are wired direct to the batteries, I have a 2nd switch to shut them off, so they don't unexpectedly kick in and start when refueling.



I was always taught (and all USCG, Chapman etc safety guides tell you) to turn off "all" electric off, and after refueling, open all the hatches - wait 3 or 4 minutes, and then turn on the bilge blower for 3 or 4 minutes before starting the engine.



Yes, I saw that on the news as well. . . and in fact when he said the bilge blower was running - my very thought was: "OOPS". . . But, as I am sure you know, Richard - many boaters will leave that blower on during refueling - making it an explosion just waiting to happen.

Answer 9

I've been running small bow rider boats with I/O drives for over 25 years. I have always run the blower during fueling and nothing else. The ignition switch is always off. I do this since gasoline fumes are heavier than air and lifting the engine cover is not a guaranteed method of removing fumes. I always do a sniff test of the bilge blower output 3 - 4 minutes after fueling is over and before restarting the engine.



Given the information above, I will rethink my traditional procedures.

Answer 10

Harry that is the same procedure taught to boaters here in the states. And it works very well.