Maersk Frankfurt fire, 1 dead; 5 Indian Coast Guard ships battle fire
A major fire broke out on a container cargo vessel – MV Maersk Frankfurt
One of Maersk Frankfurt's 21 crew members has died in the ongoing fire tragedy on the cargo vessel, that is about 65 kilometres southwest of Mangalore, Karnataka.
For more than 40 hours, Indian Coast Guard(ICG) ships and helicopters have been leading the firefighting efforts.
As of Sunday (July 21)afternoon, the Indian Coast Guard has deployed five vessels - Samrat, Sujeet, Sachet, Varaha and Samudra Prahari, to fight the blaze that has been spreading to different parts of the cargo vessel that is ferrying International Maritime Dangerous Goods(IMDG) from Mundra, Gujarat to Colombo, Sri Lanka.
According to the Indian Coast Guard, the fire has reduced in scale, but heavy smoke continues to obscure the flame. The fire has also spread to the right side of the ship and is affecting the containers stacked in that portion of the vessel.
A major fire broke out on Maersk Frankfurt, around 5pm Indian Standard Time(IST), Friday, 19th July, following which Indian Coast Guard began their firefighting operations. The efforts of the ICG ships are being assisted by an Advanced Light Helicopter(ALH Mk3) that is dropping packets of Dry Chemical Powder(DCP), a specialised firefighting chemical. Further, a Dornier short-range Maritime patrol plane is monitoring the situation, keeping a close watch for any signs of an oil spill from the flaming cargo vessel.
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WION has learnt that MV Maersk Frankfurt is manned by 21 crew - comprising 17 Filipinos, two Ukrainians, one Russian and one member from Montenegro. One Filipino crew member is reported dead. The cause of fire remains unknown. While the Indian Coast guard assets continue to fight the fire, and there is also a danger posed by the 1,400 metric tons of diesel that the vessel is carrying. ICG assets have been dousing the flames with water and specialised firefighting chemicals such as Aqueous Film Forming Form(AFFF), Dry Chemical Powder(DCP).
An Emergency Towing Vessel(ETV) Water Lily departed from Mumbai on Friday evening and is expected to reach the flaming cargo vessel by Sunday evening. In addition to this, the owner of MV Maersk Frankfurt has also mobilised a salvage team to board the flaming vessel and carry out further actions as necessary. The Indian Coast Guard would be working with the salvage team to expedite containment and recovery operations.
As a precautionary measure, the Indian Coast Guard has also deployed a specialised Pollution Control Vessel(PCV) Samudra Prahari. PCVs are meant to perform a wide range of roles including firefighting, responding to oil spills, chemical spills, dispersing special chemicals to minimize the impact of at-sea spills etc.
