Let me preface this by saying my experience is in naval damage control which I would think is similar to what you’d be doing on a starship. The objective of it is not to
fix damage but rather stop it from spreading and keep the ship from sinking, burning, or whatever.
I considered the halon system and the ability to control the environment adequate to smother fire. Shut off the O2 to a section and most fires will smother themselves if the system doesn't do it. I'm open to suggestions though. Thoughts?
For many small fires having a portable extinguisher handy is both a cheap and effective solution. Halon may not be the best choice as in higher concentrations it, like CO2, can’t sustain live. That can be a problem…
I also would think it depends on what kind of fire you have. An Alpha class (solid organic stuff that burns like wood or clothing), can smolder for hours and reflash on you. Simply putting it out isn’t enough. You have to break it up to get the embers.
Then you might have things aboard that in an atmosphere will spontaneously ignite. Or, you could have a plasma fire. Burning metals is another possibility.
Installed suppression systems are bulky and expensive. Sprinklers like a building here would have aren’t an option. You don’t have a water source.
So, I’d think that portable extinguishers would be a good option. You can put out a small fire and keep it from spreading. They don’t take up a lot of room and aren’t going to be expensive.
I'm more familiar with building structural requirements than with ship requirements. What am I using shoring and bracing materials for in space? What am I using a fan for that I can't address by kicking the existing ventilation system into high gear? Absorbent chemicals are a good idea, but what spills are we expecting that would require them as part of mandated safety equipment, as opposed to just having them with the cleaning supplies and engine room supplies? Power cabling I'd consider to be among spare parts kept in engineering; should I mandate a level of spare parts generically? Entry/demolition tools - would those not be among the metalworking or mechanical kits, or is there a need for something quicker than a cutting torch?
On a ship, including a starship, you have nowhere to run. Letting the fire burn itself out generally isn’t an option. It might spread.
The shoring equipment is to brace up a failing bulkhead or deck. Let’s say the bulkhead is damaged and might collapse / fail. Shoring braces it up to keep it from doing so.
You need ventilation equipment to move things like fumes (possibly poisonous or hazardous) and smoke out of a compartment in a fire. You don’t want to send that through a ventilation system that isn’t designed to handle or clean it (why would it be when this condition is rare and limited to emergencies?). So, you have equipment on board to do this. You also risk spreading a fire through the ventilation system. That would be shut down immediately in the affected area to prevent that.
Absorbent materials would be used to contain say a hydraulic leak, leaking pipe with whatever in it, etc. They would be useful in containing liquids that are leaking from a damaged pipe or fitting.
The power cables I’m talking about are large ones to restore power to say an electrical panel that has had its normal cable supply lines damaged. This can happen in a fire or battle damage. You might have bulkhead risers to allow connecting them without having to leave hatches open etc., too.
So, you might have a 200 or 400 amp panel somewhere other than engineering on a ship that you desperately need power to and the cabling to it is damaged or destroyed.
Demolition tools are two things: Access and assisting in containing damage. Let’s say you have a hatch that won’t open and you have to get into the space to rescue crew or fight damage. Having something that will pry that hatch open would be very handy. What if you have a big jagged hole in a bulkhead or pipe that needs patching but all those sharp protrusions are making it difficult or impossible? Being able to cut them away would help greatly.
We're extending now into the layout of the ship, which is a bit beyond what I was planning. It's not uncommon for emergency supplies to be in locked rooms when you have a concern about public access to them. Anything you want immediate access to is already on the walls in public areas, like those O2 masks, or maybe the proposed fire extinguishers. Anything needing to be closeted, the necessary parties - all crew, in this case - would have keys to; that's what they do in nursing homes and hospitals to prevent pilferage and to keep patients out of things that might be unsafe in the hands of the untrained. Or, in the far future you could have thumbprint locks or voice recognition or some such method.
It depends on the kind of ship you have. A merchant might have just one locker somewhere with just crew access. A warship might have several scattered through the ship. They would expect the crew not to mess with the stuff in them.
Personal survival equipment would be placed separately. Escape balls might be in each stateroom or in a nearby common area (like life vests would be). In spaces like engineering there might be face masks and an installed O2 system for breathing in the event of a casualty (Navy talk for damage / emergency).
You likely wouldn’t want them on some sort of powered lock. What if the power fails?
Having emergency lighting is a good idea too. It could be luminescent paint to battery powered lights, etc.
Weapons are secured in a weapons locker in the locked compartment - double security, and the only required weapons there are snub pistols, and there are separate weapons lockers on the bridge and in the engine room. Those were mandated for their ability to quell problems nonlethally, and for that purpose I believe it is helpful for the crew not on bridge or in engineering to have the ability to arm themselves if needed without having to access the bridge or engine room to do so. I wouldn't keep anything heavier than a snub pistol in there for the reasons you cite. Hijackers, or crew trying to mutiny if you're worried about that, would still be faced with armed crew in a locked bridge and engine room. They might threaten passengers, but they themselves are essentially imprisoned unless they can force access to a boat or vehicle, and those are usually behind doors just as strong as the ones protecting bridge and engine room and likely controlled from the bridge. No rule covers where the captain puts his weapons locker for any other weapons he might buy; if he's wise, he'll have it on the bridge or, if the ship is large enough to warrant security troops, in a guarded security armory.
On a large ship it would make sense just to have the security crew and their weapons together in a berthing compartment they work out of. Sensitive areas of the ship could have remote controlled weapons or a manned guard station at them.
On a small ship the Captain might want the weapons where he personally has control of them.
All of this is completely separate from damage control however.
That is however an excellent reason to keep the tools in engineering: wouldn't want someone using those to get through the iris ports. I believe I will edit it to reflect that.
It also makes sense in that you need them for
repairs not damage control. Remember, damage control on a ship is to stop the emergency and control the fire, vacuum, flooding, whatever because if you don’t it’s a very long walk home in a space suit…
I don't see anything there that's going to impact the bottom line. It's stocked at the outset by the builder, might be replaced come annual maintenance time to deal with expiration dates, but it doesn't add up to a terrible lot and - other than expiration dates at annual maintenance - it can be comfortably ignored until an emergency happens. And, the Imperium is not Earth, where a nation's laws (mostly) stop a couple hundred miles from its coasts: Imperial law governs the space between stars in Imperial space. You cannot register a ship on Arden and then expect to claim exemption from Imperial law as you traffic between Rhylanor and Porozlo.
Just as on Earth today, many merchants / corporations will cut corners. I really don’t think the Imperium could eliminate the presence of sub-standard and poorly maintained starships. This would be particularly true on the fringes and in areas that are backwaters. Core systems might be able to keep such ships down in number but it would be hard with the smaller ones.
