SOLAS II-2/20 Checklist for Ro-Ro Ship Operators

There is no single SOLAS II-2/20 checklist — there are four, and which one you owe depends on two facts: passenger ship or cargo ship, built before or after 1 January 2026. Get that wrong and you either over-specify a car carrier against a passenger-ship rule nobody will ask you for, or you miss a 2028 survey date. Start by finding your row.

This is the actionable companion to the full explainer of the amendment: items phrased as things to verify, with the evidence a surveyor will want to see. Every requirement below comes from the ABS and Lloyd's Register class summaries of Resolutions MSC.550(108) and MSC.555(108), both in force 1 January 2026.

Step 1 — find your row before reading anything else

• Passenger ship, keel laid on or after 1 January 2026 → the full checklist. Detection, video, suppression, boundaries, openings, ventilation.
• Passenger ship, constructed before 1 January 2026 → the retroactive checklist, due no later than the first survey on or after 1 January 2028. Detection and video only.
• Cargo ship, keel laid on or after 1 January 2026 → the short checklist. Fixed detection to FSS Code Chapter 9, and nothing else new.
• Cargo ship, constructed before 1 January 2026 → no new items. The requirements prior to MSC.550(108) remain applicable.
• 'First survey' means the first annual, periodical or renewal survey falling due after the date, per MSC.1/Circ.1290 — not the next drydock, and not a date you choose.

Checklist A — new passenger ships (from 1 January 2026)

• Detection is individually identifiable in vehicle, special category and ro-ro spaces, per FSS Code Chapter 9.
• Combined smoke and heat detectors are fitted throughout those spaces, capable of rapidly detecting the onset of fire. Linear heat detectors may be accepted by the Administration.
• Detector spacing meets the amended table: combined smoke-and-heat at a maximum 74 m² per detector, 9 m between centres, 4.5 m from bulkheads. Check this against the existing layout — the 74 m² area is a smoke detector's, but the 9 m / 4.5 m spacing is a heat detector's, so an old 11 m smoke grid needs more heads, not just different ones.
• Detectors below movable ro-ro decks meet the same spacing. Price this before a hoistable-deck arrangement is signed off.
• Linear heat detection, where used, has sensor cables at most 9.0 m apart and 4.5 m from bulkheads, tested to EN 54-22:2015 and IEC 60092-504.
• Detection zones align with the deluge system sections where a water-based deluge system is fitted, so a detector zone resolves to a valve.
• Weather decks intended for vehicle carriage have fixed detection, with detector type, spacing and location approved by the Administration considering weather and obstruction by cargo.
• Alarm presentation follows a consistent scheme — wording, vocabulary, colour and position — immediately recognisable on the navigation bridge and not compromised by noise or poor placement.
• The interface provides alarm addressability, lets the crew identify alarm history and the most recent alarms, and allows suppression while keeping alarms with ongoing trigger conditions clearly visible.
• Video monitoring covers vehicle, special category and ro-ro spaces, with immediate playback, cameras high enough to see over cargo and vehicles after loading, and camera-to-extinguishing-section correspondence displayed near the monitor.
• Video recordings are replayable at a continuously manned control station or safety centre for at least 7 days.
• Weather-deck monitors deliver at least 2.0 L/min/m² combined over the protected area, no individual monitor below 1,250 L/min, each sited outside the area it protects, with the farthest forward extent within 75% of the monitor's throw in still air.
• Boundary bulkheads and decks of special category and ro-ro spaces are A-60 on ships carrying more than 36 passengers, reducible to A-0 in the defined cases; internal deck subdivisions are A-30 where the water-based system cannot cover above and below simultaneously.
• Openings in side plating, ends or deckhead are clear of survival craft, embarkation and assembly stations and occupied spaces above, with the 6.0 m horizontal exclusion observed; A-0 windows protected by a water curtain of at least 5.0 L/min/m² may be accepted as A-60 equivalent.
• Ventilation openings below accommodation and control stations have steel or fire-resistant closing devices operable from accessible positions, and none sit below survival craft, emergency generators or engine-room air intakes.

Checklist B — existing passenger ships (by first survey after 1 January 2028)

Shorter than the newbuild list, and that is the point — structural fire protection and the openings rules stay as they were. Four items:

• Fixed detection is provided in vehicle, special category and ro-ro spaces per FSS Code Chapter 9, capable of rapidly detecting the onset of fire.
• Combined smoke and heat detectors are installed throughout those spaces. Heat detectors follow the spacing and coverage applicable to smoke detectors, and are required only where a smoke detector already exists — which bounds the retrofit.
• Video monitoring is fitted to the same specification as a new passenger ship, except that replay capability need only be at least 24 hours rather than 7 days.
• Existing provisions survive: testing after installation, and the exemption that a fixed detection system is not required where an efficient patrol system is maintained by a continuous fire watch at all times during the voyage.

Checklist C — cargo ships, including car carriers

One item for a newbuild, none for an existing ship. For a cargo ship with a keel laid on or after 1 January 2026: fixed fire detection and alarm in vehicle, special category and ro-ro spaces complying with FSS Code Chapter 9, with detector type, spacing and location subject to Administration approval considering ventilation effects, and the system tested after installation under normal ventilation conditions with the overall response time approved by the Administration. Corridors, stairways, escape routes, control stations and cargo control rooms follow the adopted protection method (IC, IIC or IIIC) under regulation 9.2.3.1.

For a cargo ship built before 1 January 2026 the list is empty — the pre-amendment requirements remain applicable. That is not a loophole to exploit but a planning fact: what will reach the vehicle-carrier fleet is the interim guidelines now being drafted at IMO, with SOLAS text no earlier than 2032, and in the meantime whatever a charterer, class notation or insurer asks for. The companion posts on the compliance calendar and SSE 12 cover that timeline.

What a surveyor will ask to see — and what is not on the list

Evidence, not intentions. The amendment quantifies things that used to be judgement, and quantified items are the ones that get checked: a detector layout drawing dimensioned against the spacing table rather than a generic arrangement; the test record from commissioning under normal ventilation conditions with the approved overall response time; the camera plan validated against a loaded stow condition rather than an empty deck, with the camera-to-section correspondence actually displayed at the monitor; the retention setting on the recorder; monitor capacity calculations for the weather deck; and the disconnection arrangement for smoke detection during loading — which must match the loading duration, reset automatically, indicate its status at the central unit, and must never disable heat detection or manual call points.

What is not on the checklist is as useful to know. There is no required time-to-alarm for a vehicle-deck fire anywhere in this package — spacing and detector type are specified, detection performance is not. There is no requirement for anyone to watch the video: ABS's summary states in terms that continuous crew monitoring is not required. And there is no video requirement for a cargo ship of any age. An operator who reads those three gaps correctly will not confuse a compliant ship with a monitored one, which is the distinction the corpus's posts on video monitoring and alarm credibility are about.

Sources

• 1. IMO Resolution MSC.550(108), Amendments to SOLAS Chapters II-2 and V, adopted 23 May 2024, in force 1 January 2026; Resolution MSC.555(108), amendments to FSS Code Chapters 7 and 9; MSC.1/Circ.1290 for the definition of 'first survey'; MSC.1/Circ.1615, the interim guidelines carrying FIRESAFE outcomes.
• 2. ABS Regulatory News No. 15/2025 (December 2025), 'Fire Safety Requirements for Ro-Ro Passenger and Cargo Ships' — read in full from the published PDF. Source of the four-row application table; the detector spacing figures (heat 37 m²/9 m/4.5 m, smoke 74 m²/11 m/5.5 m, combined 74 m²/9 m/4.5 m); linear heat cable spacing and EN 54-22:2015 / IEC 60092-504 testing; detectors below movable ro-ro decks; deluge-section alignment; the alarm-presentation and addressability provisions; the loading-disconnection conditions; video monitoring with 7-day and 24-hour retention and 'continuous crew monitoring is not required'; weather-deck monitor figures (2.0 L/min/m², ≥1,250 L/min, 75% of throw); A-60/A-0/A-30 boundary ratings; the 6.0 m opening exclusion and 5.0 L/min/m² water-curtain equivalence; ventilation-opening restrictions; and the cargo-ship rows including the patrol-system exemption.
• 3. Lloyd's Register Class News 07/2026 (1 April 2026), 'SOLAS amendments: Fire Safety Requirements for ro-ro Passenger Ships': application to cargo ships and ro-ro passenger ships constructed on or after 1 January 2026, and existing ro-ro passenger ships not later than the first survey on or after 1 January 2028.
• 4. Companion RoRoSAFE analyses — 'SOLAS II-2/20 Explained: New Fire Safety Requirements for Ro-Ro Ships in 2026' (the reference version of everything summarised here), 'What Does SOLAS II-2/20 Ask of a Car Carrier?', 'Does the 2026 SOLAS Rule Reach Old Ships?', 'SOLAS 2026 Video Monitoring: Who Is Watching?' and 'Does Car-Carrier Fire Compliance Arrive in 2027?'.