IMO Symbols / Safety Signs
Fire Control Symbols to ISO 17631
Fire Control Symbols to ISO 17631 is a group of 116 IMPA-coded items (codes 336751–336879) under IMO Symbols / Safety Signs in the Safety Equipment section (IMPA 33). All of them are priced per piece.
Buying guide
These are fire control symbols made as signs, mostly 150 × 150 mm, 116 lines in all. They mark the fire-safety items that appear on the ship’s fire control plan: A- and B-class divisions, main vertical zones and fire doors (hinged, self-closing, sliding, watertight or semi-watertight). They also cover ventilation shut-offs and fire dampers, remote controls for pumps and valves, release stations, fixed systems, hydrants, monitors, extinguishers and fire-fighter’s outfit lockers.
The symbols come from ISO 17631, the standard for shipboard plans for fire protection, life-saving appliances and means of escape and the graphical symbols used in them. IMO adopted matching symbols in resolution A.952(23). IMO’s later signage resolution calls these fire control signs: signs for trained people to find and identify fire control equipment, drawn to ISO 17631.[1][2][3]
How to specify it
Order symbol by symbol, matched to the fire control plan’s legend. A.952 says a legend of the symbols used, with their explanations, should be part of every fire control plan. Count the doors, dampers and stations on board against the plan, not against the old order.[2]
Give the variant in full, because the colour or letter is part of the symbol. Ventilation controls and dampers are colour-coded by the space served: A blue for accommodation and service spaces, M green for machinery spaces, C yellow for cargo spaces. Release stations and fixed systems show the extinguishing medium in colour and letter: grey CO2 or N for nitrogen, brown H for other gases, white P for powder, green W for water. Fire doors take WT or SWT for watertight or semi-watertight.[2]
Ask which edition the signs are drawn to. ISO 17631:2002 was withdrawn in December 2022 and replaced by ISO 17631:2022, which now also covers damage control plans. IMO points to ISO 17631 as the definitive source for fire control signs.[1][3]
On passenger ships, say whether the sign is part of the low-location marking. The IMO low-location lighting guidelines ask for escape route signs and fire equipment location markings in the lower 300 mm of the bulkhead to be photoluminescent or lit.[4]
Rules and certificates
SOLAS regulation II-2/15.2.4 requires fire control plans to be permanently displayed for the officers. A duplicate set, or a booklet, must be kept in a prominently marked weathertight enclosure outside the deckhouse for shore fire-fighters. A.952(23) urges the use of its symbols for those plans on ships built on or after 1 January 2004.[2]
Resolution A.1116(30) applies its signs to ships built on or after 1 January 2019, and to ships repaired, altered or re-outfitted within the scope of SOLAS chapters II-2 or III from then on. They are used together with A.952 for the fire control plan.[3]
COSWP notes that symbols for life-saving appliances are mandatory international standards, while those for fire control plans are recommended ones.[5]
Questions buyers ask
- What is the difference between ISO 17631 and IMO A.654 fire control symbols?
- A.654(16) is IMO’s 1989 symbol set. ISO 17631 was developed with IMO and its symbols generally conform to A.654; IMO adopted the updated set as A.952(23) in 2003 for ships built from 2004. Ships built before 2004 may keep plans with A.654 symbols.
- What do the A, M and C letters on fire damper symbols mean?
- The space the ventilation serves: A (blue) accommodation and service spaces, M (green) machinery spaces, C (yellow) cargo spaces.
Sources
- Standards Norway: ISO 17631:2002, Shipboard plans for fire protection, life-saving appliances and means of escape (withdrawn; revised by ISO 17631:2022)
- IMO Resolution A.952(23): Graphical symbols for shipboard fire control plans (2003)
- IMO Resolution A.1116(30): Escape route signs and equipment location markings (2017)
- IMO Resolution A.752(18): Guidelines for the evaluation, testing and application of low-location lighting on passenger ships (1993)
- UK MCA: Code of Safe Working Practices for Merchant Seafarers (COSWP), 2024 edition
Published by Sherif Awad, founder of GeoMarineHub — in ship supply since 1990, a family business since 1981 (45 years). Last checked .
At a glance
Part of Safety Equipment (IMPA section 33): Life-saving and fire-fighting equipment — extinguishers, breathing apparatus, lifejackets, detectors, pyrotechnics.
It is one of 29 groups under IMO Symbols / Safety Signs; the others include Accommodation Signs, Combination Signs, Deck and Engine Room Signs, Fire Control & Life Saving Application Plan Modification, Fire Control Symbols to Resolution A654 and 23 more.
Post the ones you need as a requirement and verified suppliers activated at your port bid on them — sealed, so nobody sees another bid.
- Items
- 116
- IMPA codes
- 336751–336879
- Priced
- per piece
Items
Also under IMO Symbols / Safety Signs
- Accommodation Signs
- Combination Signs
- Deck and Engine Room Signs
- Fire Control & Life Saving Application Plan Modification
- Fire Control Symbols to Resolution A654
- Fire Plan Identification
- Fire Signs
- Galley Signs
- Hazard Diamonds
- Hazard Signs
- IMO Symbols, on Self Adhesive Photoluminescent Vinyl
- ISPS Code Signs & Security Signs
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