The Singapore Government has notified ClassNK of maintenance, inspection and tests of fire-protection and fire fighting systems on board Singapore-registered ships, where are produced as follows. The previous ClassNK Technical Information No. TEC-0483 has been superseded.

1. Portable fire extinguishers
(1) Containers of permanent pressurized portable and propellant bottles of portable fire extinguishers should be hydraulic pressure tested as follows.
(I) powder extinguishers every 10 years
(ii) CO2 extinguishers every 10 years, and
(iii) Other extinguishers every 10 year
(2) Containers of non-permanently pressurized portable fire extinguishers should be hydraulic pressure tested every 10 years.
(3) The condition of recharge of portable CO2 gas fire extinguishers should be checked annually, and if the loss of gas by weight exceeds 10 % of the original charge, gas cylinders to be hydraulic pressure tested before being recharged.
(4) The condition of recharge of portable fire extinguishers other than CO2 gas fire extinguishers including propellant bottles should be checked annually, and if the loss of gas by weight exceeds 10 % of the original charge, they should be to be recharged.
(5) Each portable fire extinguisher should be provided with a sigh indicating that it has been examined.

2. Fixed CO2 gas fire-extinguishing systems
(1) CO2 gas bottles should be hydraulic pressure tested 20 years after the date on which the bottles were put in use, and every 5 years thereafter.
(2) The quantity of the medium in the bottles should be checked once every 4 years. This may be carried out in batches of 25 % of the bottles annually, or 50 % of the bottles biennially or in accordance with the ship's maintenance plan prescribed in Reg. 14.4.2 (Maintenance, testing and inspections) of the Chapter II-2 of the 2000 amendments to the 1974 SOLAS so long as every CO2 bottle is checked once every 4 years.
(3) All stop valves should be checked monthly to ensure that they are in their proper open or closed position.

(To be continued)