More fishermen are expanding their onboard fire suppression arsenal with aerosol extinguishers that can be activated and thrown into the engine room in case of fire.

John Reardon, the general manager for New Bedford, Mass.-based Hercules SLR, is the U.S. distributor for DSPA, a company based in the Netherlands that manufactures the aerosol fire-extinguishing systems. Reardon said fishermen are buying up the DSPA 5M aerosol generator as a backup to handheld extinguishers.

The system has already been deployed several times with success, most recently when a fire broke out in the engine room of an East Coast scalloper.

“The skipper saw smoke billowing out of the engine room, and he threw the suppression device down there. When the smoke had cleared, they went down, replaced the broken hydraulic hose that had caused the fire, cleaned up, and four hours later they were fishing again,” Reardon said.

A circular pod with a handle, the DSPA 5M is activated by pulling a pin and then heaved into any room where a fire had started. Once activated, the DSPA 5M functions on its own to release an expanding aerosol cloud that fills the space and quickly knocks the fire down.

DSPA’s Marcel Clauzing said most skippers keep the extinguisher on the bridge close to their driving station, where it is easy to grab.

While the aerosol cloud is choking out the fire, captains and crew are free to engage in potentially critical activities, like putting on survival suits or calling for help, instead of operating traditional handheld extinguishers.

DSPA extinguishers have not yet been approved by the U.S. Coast Guard, so fishermen should keep their regulation extinguishers onboard and add the DSPA as an effective, affordable backup.