Fire-fighting equipment is the only system on board that has to work perfectly the first time it is ever used in anger, having sat untouched for years. That is why the rules do not ask whether it works — they ask when it was last proved, by whom, and against which interval. A ship’s fire-fighting equipment file is therefore a calendar before it is anything else, and the deficiencies that come out of a fire-fighting equipment inspection are almost always dates rather than defects: a cylinder past its hydrostatic test, a hose that has not been pressure tested inside the five-year cycle, a foam sample nobody has sent ashore.

SOLAS chapter II-2 · chief officer’s guide

Nothing on this list fails an inspection because it is broken. It fails because a date went past.

Every year: service per the maker’s instructions Year 5: test discharge, one per type Year 10: hydrostatic test 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 A monthly visual check sits underneath all of this — in place, properly arranged, correct pressure, seal and pin intact.
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SOLAS fire-fighting equipment inspection: the maintenance plan behind it

SOLAS chapter II-2 requires that fire protection systems and appliances are kept ready for use and that the ship carries a maintenance plan covering them, normally held inside the ship’s planned maintenance system. The detail of what that plan should contain comes from the revised IMO guidelines on the maintenance and inspection of fire protection systems and appliances, which set out the intervals used throughout this guide. Two consequences follow, and both shape how an inspection goes.

The plan is the document, not the equipment

An inspector asks for the maintenance plan first and works outward from it. A plan that lists the equipment and the intervals, and that has entries against those intervals, turns the rest of the visit into spot checks. A plan that exists as a folder of servicing invoices does not.

Some checks are the crew’s, some are not

Weekly and monthly checks are the ship’s own. Annual servicing, hydrostatic testing, foam sample analysis and the ten-year work belong to competent persons or approved service companies, and they produce certificates that have to be on board rather than in the office.

Portable fire extinguisher inspection: the one, five and ten year rules

Portable extinguishers carry three periodic obligations on top of the monthly look, and they are the fire-fighting equipment items most often found out of date because the three clocks run independently of each other.

Monthly

The crew’s own check

Verify every extinguisher is in place, properly arranged and in proper condition. Gauge in the green, seal and safety pin intact, hose and horn clear, bracket sound, and the unit not buried behind stores.
1 year

Periodical inspection

Inspection in accordance with the maker’s instructions, at intervals not exceeding one year, by or under the supervision of a person with demonstrable competence. The hydrostatic test date on each cylinder is checked at the same time.
5 years

Test discharge

At least one extinguisher of each type manufactured in the same year is test discharged. It is a batch rule, not a per-unit rule — twenty identical units from the same year means one discharge. Run it inside a fire drill and the crew gets the training as well.
10 years

Hydrostatic test

All extinguishers, together with their propellant cartridges, hydrostatically tested by specially trained people at intervals not exceeding ten years. This is the date that strands units ashore, so it needs to be visible a year out, not on the day.

Portable extinguisher spare charges: the requirement ships get wrong

This one catches ships regularly, and it catches them at the worst moment because the shortfall is arithmetic an inspector can do on the spot from the fire control plan. Where extinguishers can be recharged on board, spare charges must be provided for 100 per cent of the first ten extinguishers and 50 per cent of the remaining ones, and never more than sixty spares in total.

Worked example: 26 rechargeable extinguishers

10
First ten, at 100 per cent
+
8
Remaining sixteen, at 50 per cent
=
18
Spare charges to be carried

The trap sits in the other half of the rule. Where an extinguisher cannot be recharged on board — and a great many modern units cannot — the ship must instead carry additional portable extinguishers of the same quantity, type, capacity and number. Operators routinely miss this and find they are required to carry considerably more physical units than they budgeted for. Work out which of your extinguishers are genuinely rechargeable at sea before you count anything, because the answer decides which half of the rule you are in.

Fixed CO2 system inspection: weighing, blow-through and the ten-year test

A fixed carbon dioxide system is the piece of fire-fighting equipment with the most demanding inspection regime on board, and unlike an extinguisher it cannot be swapped out at short notice. The intervals below come from the revised IMO guidelines for fixed carbon dioxide systems.

Every 30 days

General visual inspection

Stop valves, controls, piping, cylinders and alarm devices looked over as a system, with anything obstructed, corroded or disturbed raised there and then.
Annual

Boundaries and containers

Space boundaries, storage containers, piping, manifolds and entrance doors checked. Cylinders showing corrosion or damage go for hydrostatic retest or replacement rather than back into service.
2 years

Weigh the cylinders

All high-pressure and pilot cylinders weighed or their contents verified, confirming each holds above 90 per cent of nominal charge. Anything below is refilled.
2 years

Blow through the pipework

Discharge piping and nozzles proved clear with dry air or nitrogen. Blocked nozzles are invisible until the day the system is wanted, which is precisely why this interval exists.
5 years

Internal valve inspection

Internal inspection of all control valves, carried out by people trained on that system rather than as part of a general overhaul.
10 years

Hydrostatic test, 10 per cent

At least 10 per cent of cylinders internally inspected and hydrostatically tested. Failures escalate the sample to 50 per cent and then to every cylinder. Before the twentieth anniversary, and every ten years after, all cylinders are tested.

The flexible hoses nobody diaries

Flexible discharge hoses inside the CO2 room are replaced at the maker’s stated interval and in any case at not more than ten years. They sit out of sight behind the cylinders, they carry no obvious expiry marking to a casual look, and they are a routine finding once an inspector starts checking dates rather than appearances.
Every one of these intervals is a date somebody has to be warned about
Marine Inspection holds each extinguisher, cylinder, hose and outfit against the vessel with its own interval and last result — so the ten-year hydrostatic test and the two-yearly weighing surface months ahead, not at the gangway.
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Fire main, fire pumps and hydrants: the weekly-to-annual routine

The fire main is the part of the ship’s fire-fighting equipment that gets used most and inspected least carefully, because it appears to work every time somebody opens a hydrant.

Monthly

Operate all fire pumps and confirm they continue to supply adequate pressure. Running the pump is not the check; reading the pressure against what it should be is.

Quarterly

Verify the international shore connection is in serviceable condition — present, complete with gasket, bolts, nuts and washers, and stowed where it can actually be got to.

Annual

Flow test all fire pumps for proper pressure and capacity, which means against the designed figures rather than against an impression. The emergency fire pump is tested the same way and is the one that usually disappoints.

Two details decide most fire main findings. Isolating valves have to be where the fire control plan says and have to turn, because a main that cannot be sectioned is a main that empties through the damaged length. And hydrants have to be complete — hose, nozzle, spanner, and a coupling that matches the hose on the adjacent hydrant. Mixed couplings after a refit are a classic, and they only show up when two hoses need joining. The same discipline runs through the wider fire safety inspection regime, which tests the boundaries the fire main is there to defend.

Fire hoses, nozzles and the five-year rolling pressure test

Hoses carry an interval that is easy to misread. A sample of fire hoses is pressure tested annually at the maximum fire main pressure, arranged so that every hose on board has been tested within five years. It is a rolling programme, not an annual test of everything and not a five-yearly test of anything.

That structure only works if hoses are individually identified. A ship with numbered hoses and a register showing the test date against each number can prove the five-year cycle in a minute. A ship with forty interchangeable hoses and an annual certificate saying “hoses tested” cannot prove anything about any particular hose, and the inspector is entitled to say so. Number them, keep the register, and rotate the sample deliberately rather than testing whichever ones are nearest the hydrant.

Fire-fighting equipment inspection intervals at a glance

The intervals below are the consolidated picture across the equipment families. The right-hand column is the one worth reading: what each check actually establishes, as opposed to what it is called.

Equipment Interval What the check establishes
Portable extinguishers Monthly, annual, 5-yearly discharge, 10-yearly hydrostatic That the unit is where the plan says, holds pressure, and has a cylinder still inside its test life
Fire pumps Monthly operation; annual flow test That the pumps still make designed pressure and capacity, not merely that they start
Fire hoses Annual sample at main pressure, all hoses inside 5 years That every individual hose has been proved, which needs numbered hoses and a register
Shore connection Quarterly That it is present, complete with its gasket and fastenings, and reachable
Fixed CO2 system 30-day visual; annual; 2-yearly weighing and blow-through; 5-yearly valves; 10-yearly hydrostatic That the agent is still in the cylinders and the path from cylinder to nozzle is open
Foam systems Monthly valves; quarterly quantity; annual flow test and concentrate sample That the concentrate has not degraded and the proportioner still mixes within tolerance
Water mist and sprinkler Weekly panel; monthly valves and section test; annual nozzle test That sections initiate and alarm, and that nozzles operate rather than merely exist
Detection and alarm Weekly panel lamp test; monthly detector sample, all inside 5 years; annual full test That detectors respond and that the panel survives a change to emergency power
Breathing apparatus Weekly cylinder pressure; annual masks, valves and air quality; 5-yearly cylinder hydrostatic That the set is chargeable, breathable and within cylinder test life
Fireman’s outfits Monthly locker inventory That the outfit is complete and serviceable, which a stores check will not tell you
EEBDs Weekly gauge; annual check to maker’s instructions That the device will deliver its rated escape time when somebody grabs it in smoke
Fire dampers Quarterly local operation; annual remote operation That the damper closes and seats from both the local and the remote control

Maker’s instructions and flag requirements sit above this list, and several flags set tighter intervals. Where the two disagree, the shorter interval is the one to plan against.

Foam and water-mist system checks

Foam has a failure mode nothing else on board shares: the agent itself degrades in the tank while everything around it looks perfect. That is why samples of every foam concentrate carried are taken annually and sent for the periodical control tests, and it is a finding that cannot be closed out on board.

The other foam interval worth diarising is the five-yearly proportioner test, which confirms the mixing ratio is within plus 30 to minus 10 per cent of the design figure. A proportioner drifting outside that band produces something that looks like foam and behaves like water. Alongside it, all control valves get an internal inspection on the same five-year clock.

Water mist, water spray and sprinkler systems run a shorter rhythm: a weekly confirmation that panel indicators and alarms are functional, a monthly check that control, pump unit and section valves are in the correct position with a sample of section valves tested for flow and alarm initiation, and an annual operation of each section through its test valve with at least two automatic heads or nozzles proved.

Fireman’s outfits, breathing apparatus and EEBDs

These are the items a crew touches during every fire drill and the items most likely to be found incomplete, because equipment migrates. The monthly check is simply that each locker holds its full inventory and everything in it is serviceable — which is a different question from whether the stores account balances.

Weekly

Examine all breathing apparatus and EEBD cylinder gauges and confirm they sit in the correct pressure range. Quick, and it catches slow leaks before a drill does.

Annual

Face masks and air demand valves confirmed serviceable, the air recharging system checked for air quality where one is fitted, and EEBDs checked to the maker’s instructions.

Five years

Hydrostatic testing of all steel self-contained breathing apparatus cylinders — the same test-life discipline that governs the ship’s air receivers and pressure vessels. Composite cylinders follow their own maker’s life and test regime, which is usually shorter.

Air quality is the one crews most often cannot evidence. If the ship has a compressor charging breathing air, there must be an annual air quality check with a result, not an assumption that the filters were changed. And the drill itself is where all of this gets exercised in earnest — the monthly fire drill requires fireman’s outfits and personal rescue equipment to be checked as part of the drill, which makes the drill a second, independent look at the same equipment.

Fire-fighting equipment records and servicing certificates

Every interval above produces something. The shape of a good fire-fighting equipment file is therefore predictable, and so is the shape of a weak one.

Per item, not per visit

Records held against the individual extinguisher, cylinder, hose or set — with its identification number — rather than against the date a contractor attended. Only the first form can prove the five-year hose cycle.

Certificates on board

Servicing and hydrostatic test certificates physically on the ship. A certificate in the office is not evidence at the gangway, and "it is being emailed" has never yet closed a deficiency.

Next-due visible

Every entry carrying the next-due date as well as the last-done date. A file that records history but not the horizon is how a ten-year hydrostatic test arrives without warning.

Findings written, not just results

Monthly checks that record what was wrong and what was done about it. A year of clean entries with no findings reads as a form being completed rather than equipment being examined.

What changed for fire-fighting equipment in 2026

Unlike most of the SOLAS 2026 package, this one carries real equipment work — but it is confined to ro-ro passenger ships, and it splits by build date. If you are not on a ro-ro passenger ship, nothing in the 2026 amendments changes your fire-fighting equipment obligations.

Ships built on or after 1 January 2026

New ro-ro passenger ships

Fixed fire detection and alarm throughout vehicle spaces, special category spaces and ro-ro spaces, using smoke and heat detectors or linear heat detectors in their place. The continuous fire watch exemption is gone, so detection becomes mandatory in special category spaces. Fixed water-based extinguishing with water monitors on weather decks used for vehicle carriage, with drainage sized at 125 per cent. Video monitoring with immediate playback and at least seven days of stored data.
Ships built before 1 January 2026

Existing ro-ro passenger ships

Water monitors on weather decks by the first survey on or after 1 January 2028 — a two-year runway, and the item to be budgeting for now. Fire detection upgraded with smoke and heat detectors to the stated spacing and coverage figures, and video monitoring with at least 24 hours of stored data.

The supporting engineering requirements for the weather-deck water monitors and the performance standards for combined smoke and heat detectors and linear heat detectors sit in the FSS Code amendments that accompany the change. The other substantial item in the same package is the new lifting appliance requirements, which unlike this one reach ships of every type.

SOLAS fire-fighting equipment inspection: frequently asked questions

How often must portable fire extinguishers be serviced?
Periodical inspection to the maker’s instructions at intervals not exceeding one year, by or under the supervision of a competent person. On top of that, one extinguisher of each type manufactured in the same year is test discharged every five years, and all extinguishers and their propellant cartridges are hydrostatically tested at intervals not exceeding ten years.

How many spare charges must a ship carry?
Where extinguishers can be recharged on board, spare charges for 100 per cent of the first ten and 50 per cent of the remainder, capped at sixty in total. Where they cannot be recharged on board, the ship carries additional extinguishers of the same quantity, type, capacity and number instead.

How often are CO2 cylinders weighed?
Every two years, within a three-month window, all high-pressure and pilot cylinders are weighed or their contents otherwise verified, confirming each holds more than 90 per cent of its nominal charge. Anything below that is refilled.

What is the ten-year rule for a fixed CO2 system?
At least 10 per cent of the cylinders are internally inspected and hydrostatically tested. If any fail, the sample rises to 50 per cent and then to every cylinder. Before the twentieth anniversary and at each ten-year anniversary after it, all cylinders are tested.

How often are fire hoses pressure tested?
A sample is tested annually at the maximum fire main pressure, arranged so every hose on board is tested within five years. It only works as evidence if hoses are individually numbered and the test date is recorded against each number.

Do foam concentrates need testing?
Yes. Samples of all foam concentrates carried are taken annually and subjected to the periodical control tests ashore. Separately, foam proportioners and mixing devices are tested every five years to confirm the mixing ratio is within plus 30 to minus 10 per cent.

How often are breathing apparatus cylinders tested?
Steel self-contained breathing apparatus cylinders are hydrostatically tested every five years. Cylinder gauges are examined weekly, and masks, demand valves and recharging air quality are checked annually. Composite cylinders follow the maker’s own life and test regime.

Did fire-fighting equipment requirements change in 2026?
Only for ro-ro passenger ships. New ships built from 1 January 2026 need detection throughout vehicle, special category and ro-ro spaces, weather-deck water monitors and video monitoring. Existing ro-ro passenger ships need water monitors by the first survey on or after 1 January 2028. Other ship types are unaffected.
Put every interval on one clock and stop losing equipment to dates
Marine Inspection keeps each extinguisher, cylinder, hose, outfit and detector against the vessel with its own interval, last result and next-due date — checks completed on one phone at the item, and alerts before anything falls due across the whole fleet.
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