THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Photographs released by the Coast Guard of the burning Maersk Honam show thick black smoke spewing out of the front portion of the container vessel. According to the Coast Guard, the 330-metre-long container ship is reportedly carrying chemicals aboard.
“The fire is raging through the forward portion of the ship and slowly spreading towards the bridge. Thick plumes of toxic fumes are seen emanating from the ship. The high temperatures have melted the containers on board the ship,” the Coast Guard said on Thursday.
The ship was on its way from Singapore to Suez when the fire broke out. After firefighting attempts proved futile, the crew sent out an SOS. Of the 27 crew members, 13 are Indians, nine Filipinos, one Romanian, one South African, two Thais and one British. The cargo consists of 7,860 containers. The fire was detected in the hold of the ship around 3.20 pm on Tuesday. The cause of the fire is currently unknown.
The Coast Guard Station in Vizhinjam was alerted by the Mumbai and Kochi units by 11.15 am on Thursday about the fire. Coast Guard vessel C-427, with a medical team comprising medical officers from the Military Hospital at Pangode, was despatched to ALS Ceres to evacuate three of the rescued men. They were brought to Vizhinjam by Thursday noon.
Meanwhile, Maersk Line, the world’s largest container shipping company, has announced that it will “investigate the matter thoroughly in cooperation with all relevant authorities”. Maersk Honam was built in 2017, has a nominal capacity of 15262 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit, or the standard size of a container), and sails under the Singapore flag.