A fire that broke out on one of New York City’s Staten Island Ferries and caused nearly $13 million in damages is now being blamed on a design flaw in the vessel’s engine.
In 2022, the Sandy Ground, a ship in the Staten Island Ferry fleet that carries passengers between lower Manhattan and Staten Island, was forced to evacuate all 884 people onboard when a fire broke out in the engine room. No one was seriously hurt in the fire but the incident did result in $12.7 million in damages to the ship. According to new investigation results released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), that fire was the result of faulty engineering.
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The Sandy Ground’s crew was trying to manage fuel oil levels when they closed both day tank fuel oil return isolation ball valves, resulting in overpressurization that caused the fuel oil filters on the main engines to rupture. That in turn caused fuel oil to spray and ignite a fire, which was made worse by a delay in shutting down the main engines.
According to the NTSB, the Sandy Ground was the second of three Ollis-class ferries built for the New York City Department of Transportation. It had fuel oil return isolation valves added after delivery but did not have a way to relieve the pressure in the fuel oil return lines if both fuel oil return isolation valves were closed. The report also said that the relief valves in the fuel oil system did not have independent return lines. All of those flaws resulted in too much pressure.
The NTSB’s findings also suggested that engineering crewmembers were undertrained on the new fuel system, meaning they likely didn’t realize the new vessels did not have relief valves in their fuel oil return systems like other Staten Island ferries.
After the investigation, the NTSB issued a safety alert to vessel operators about the importance of understanding diesel engine fuel oil system return design and operation. The agency said this is the second time in two years it’s investigated a vessel fire caused by overpressurization. In 2021, a similar incident occurred on a passenger paddle boat on the Mississippi River, which ended up causing $1.5 million in damages.