This article discusses the importance of evacuation routes from machinery spaces, and analyze their availability in the event of emergency cases, such as fire, flooding, toxic threat, terrorist attack on modern ships with spaces in the area of the engine room. It describes and provides an analysis of the course of action of escape from machinery spaces in typical cases of the actual fires on ships of the Polish and foreign flags. It identifies the main threats and reasons for causing the unavailability of escape routes, identifies factors of delay, or even prevent the evacuation of people from such spaces in the risk situation. It shows the current status of the relevant international rules and the requirements of classification societies concerning the number and structure of the main and emergency escape routes. It presents the current proposals for the revision of international rules concerning the number and structure of the escape routes from machinery spaces on ships

The author analyses the problems associated with people's evacuation from the ship in a emergency situation, especially passenger ships because of their arrangement and number of passengers. The state of the art connected with the influence of different parameters on people, their reactions, behaviour and evacuation process is presented. Especially the case of fire growth is taken under consideration. This konwledge could be useful for interior desingers in choosing safety furnushing, researchers who analyse the evacuation process when the fire spreafs

This paper analyses the causes of fires on board merchant ships and fishing vessels. The study attempts to identify the causes of fire occurrence on board ships and to determine their interrelations using the relations diagram, also known as the interrelationship diagram or digraph. This diagram identifies relations not only between causes and effects but also between two or more causes. Elements of the diagram, which have the greatest number of directed connections from/to, are the starting points for further ship safety analysis. The relations diagram is used as a basis for planning corrective measures and actions directly increasing shipping safety at sea. Knowing the various causes of fire occurrence, it is possible to eliminate or to reduce their number in the future by revising and drawing up relevant maritime transport regulations. This, in turn, can enhance shipping safety.