1 The Maritime Safety Committee, at its sixty-seventh
session (2 to 6 December 1996), approved Guidelines for the approval
of equivalent fixed gas fire-extinguishing systems, as referred to
in SOLAS 74, for machinery spaces and cargo pump-rooms, as MSC/Circ.776.
2 The Sub-Committee on Fire Protection, at its
forty-second session (8 to 12 December 1997), recognized the need
of technical improvement to the Guidelines contained in MSC/Circ.776
to assist in their proper implementation and, to that effect, prepared
amendments to the Guidelines.
3 The Committee, at its sixty-ninth session (11
to 20 May 1998), approved revised Guidelines for the approval of equivalent
fixed gas fire-extinguishing systems, as referred to in SOLAS 74,
for machinery spaces and cargo pump-rooms, as set out in the annex,
to supersede the Guidelines attached to MSC/Circ.776.
4 Member Governments are invited to apply the
annexed Guidelines when approving equivalent fixed gas fire-extinguishing
systems for use in machinery spaces of category A and cargo pump-rooms.