What happens when doing hot work without gas freeing

[JK]

http://www.cargolaw.com/2000nightmare_s ... l#fujairah

[JollyJack]

Looks like the aftermost tank just fwd of the pump room went bang. The pump room fan trunking is aft of the damage and the tank top, with access hatch, is bent up at the top of the tank access ladders on both sides of the pump room bulkhead. Looks like a fair chunk of the tank top is resting on top of the pump room vents. This isn't so much an accident as an idiot cull.

[JK]

This isn't so much an accident as an idiot cull.

LOL, pretty stupid eh. I remember in the late '80's, driving across the Courtney Bay Causeway in Saint John NB on Christmas Day and one of the tankers had welding ongoing on the outboard side at the cargo dock.
They were lucky, no boom.

[JollyJack]

I've done hot work on tankers quite often, usually on the return leg to the Persian Gulf from China or Europe when the tanks have been cleaned and gas freed, NEVER with cargo aboard (unless it's in the ER workshop welding area). Done it at anchor, too, and alongside for repairs in Dubai and Singapore, but always gas free and tanks cleaned. To do hot work otherwise is just stupidity, and you can't regulate stupidity.