RECALLING Article 15(i) of the Convention on the International
Maritime Organization concerning the functions of the Assembly in
relation to regulations and guidelines concerning maritime safety,
BEARING IN MIND that regulation
II-2/15.2.4 of the International Convention for the Safety
of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974, as amended, requires that fire control
plans be permanently exhibited for the guidance of the ship's officers
and that a duplicate set of fire control plans or a booklet containing
such plans be permanently stored in a prominently marked weathertight
enclosure outside the deckhouse for the assistance of shore-side fire-fighting
personnel,
RECOGNIZING that the use of international symbols for shipboard
fire control plans would greatly increase their usefulness, both for
the crew of the ship and for shore-based fire brigades,
RECALLING ALSO resolution A.654(16) on
Graphical symbols for fire control plans.
NOTING that ISO had, in close co-operation with IMO, developed
standard ISO 17631:2002 - Ships and marine technology - Shipboard
plans for fire protection, life-saving appliances and means of escape,
providing fire protection symbols which generally conform to the corresponding
symbols set out in resolution A.654(16),
NOTING IN PARTICULAR that, through MSC/Circ.1050, Member Governments had been invited to bring standard ISO
17631:2002 to the attention of shipbuilders, shipowners, shipoperators,
shipmasters, shore-based fire-fighting personnel and other parties
concerned with the preparation or use of shipboard fire control plans,
so that they might use it, on a voluntary basis, for the preparation
or use of the shipboard fire control plans required by SOLAS regulation II-2/15.2.4, pending the
outcome of the work related to the revision of resolution A.654(16),
HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendation made by the Maritime
Safety Committee at its seventy-seventh session,
1. ADOPTS the Graphical symbols for shipboard
fire control plans, set out in the Annex to the present resolution;
2. URGES Governments to bring the aforementioned
graphical symbols to the attention of shipbuilders, shipowners, shipoperators,
shipmasters, shore-based fire-fighting personnel and other parties
concerned with the preparation or use of shipboard fire control plans
with a view to encouraging their use for the preparation of the shipboard
fire control plans required by SOLAS regulation
II-2/15.2.4, for ships constructed on or after 1 January 2004;
3. INVITES Governments to bring standard ISO 17631:2002
to the attention of shipbuilders, shipowners, shipoperators and shipmasters
so that they may use the additional guidance contained therein for
the preparation of shipboard fire control plans;
4. AGREES that ships constructed before 1 January
2004 may continue to carry fire control plans that use the graphical
symbols contained in resolution A.654(16);
5. REQUESTS the Maritime Safety Committee to keep
this resolution under review and to amend it as necessary.