A Liberian-flagged crude oil tanker reported fire onboard, while underway 16.5 nautical miles east of Taiwan’s Orchid Island, on 8 December. The 2006-built MT MARQUESSA was en route from Laizhou, China to Singapore, when the incident occurred.
The captain of a dive boat that caught fire and sank off California in 2019, killing 34 people, was indicted on December 2 on federal manslaughter charges.
Transport Malta issued an investigation report on the engine-room fire onboard the Maltese-registered RoRo cargo vessel Eurocargo Trieste, following departure from the port of Livorno in November 2019. The investigation identified an accidental fuel spill onto a hot surface, as the most likely cause of the incident.
Transport Malta issued an investigation report on the fire on container onboard the ship Filia T while en route to Singapore in November 2019. The report could not determine the exact cause of the fire but identifies either friction or self-heating of the cargo as probable causes.
An unexpected fire broke out onboard a Togo-flagged general cargo ship which was anchored off Elafonissos, Greece, as Hellenic Coast Guard noted.
Following months of investigation, NTSB issued its official report on the fire onboard the small passenger vessel Conception in September 2019 off California, which killed 34 people, reiterating poor oversight by the company and USCG regulatory issues as key areas of concern.
Despite the important steps that shipping has taken to address the problem of containership fires, Gard estimates that so far in 2020, there have been one fire involving containerized cargo every two weeks.
In its latest Safety Digest, UK MAIB describes a case of small fire on the TV onboard a ferry, which was attributed to an overheated electrical power surge protection unit that had been fitted by the ferry owners to help prevent screen failures.
The Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (TSIB) of Singapore published its report on the fatal fire of Maersk Honam on March 2018. The reports notes that the actual cause of the fire was not conclusive.
Following investigation of a 2019 California dive boat fire that killed 34 people, the National Transportation Safety Board Tuesday called for major safety improvements to small passenger vessels, including interconnected smoke detectors and a USCG inspection program.
