Tag: fire onboard

On August 31, 2018, the fishing vessel Master D was transiting with three crewmembers in the Gulf of Mexico 45 miles southeast of South Padre Island, Texas, when a fire in the engine room erupted. After unsuccessfully trying to extinguish the fire, the crew abandoned the vessel without injury. The fire continued to burn until the vessel sank the next day. An oil sheen of around 400 yards by 1 mile was visible in the water after the sinking. The estimated property damage was more than $162,000, the NTSB report notes.

In its July edition of Safety Flashes, IMCA describes a case of a fire onboard due to main engine turbocharger lagging. The probable cause was namely traced to inappropriate material and workmanship in the replacement lagging work.

In the latest edition of its Safety Flashes, IMCA describes a case of fire on a space heater and some loose equipment onboard a ship after housekeeping. Following this incident, IMCA noted it should be always verified that worksites are returned to a safe condition after completion of work.

The US NTSB issued an investigation report on the explosion and fire involving the dredger 'Jonathon King Boyd' and its towboat 'Bayou Chevron' in Matagorda Bay, in April 2018. The report highlighted the company's failure to inform the crew about utilities in the area due to ineffective oversight. 

On July 28, a boat caught fire in Halkidiki, Thessaloniki, Greece, with five people onboard. According to local sources, the Serbian-flagged vessel was on fire while sailing, so the captain decided to head towards the coast to put the fire out.

As the West of England P&I Club says, it is well known that fires on ships require a lot of effort to address, they risk all those on board and they present extreme danger to the vessel. Engine room fires are especially challenging to put out, because of the potential confined nature of the scene and an abundance of fire triangle elements: heat, fuel and air.

USCG's Office of Investigations and Casualty Analysis issued Marine Safety Alert 07-19 to remind ship owners and operators of closely monitoring aboard the vessels, while in lay-up status. The alert follows a Great Lakes bulker that was laid up for the winter and experienced a fire that resulted to major cosmetic, machinery, and structural damage.

Two people lost their lives after the Ukrainian trawler 'Ivan Golubets' sank in the night hours of Monday off the coast of Mauritania. The vessel, which was carrying a total of 90 people onboard, had been burning for two days before sinking.

AMSA reports that on July 16, Tuesday, received an alert from the Japanese Coast Guard, according to which the Myojin Maru No. 8, was in distress after a fire broke out onboard. According to reports, the 24 crewmembers onboard were abandoning the vessel into lifeboats.

The ferry 'Peter Pan', owned by Swedish ferry operator TT-Line, suffered an engine room fire while sailing in Baltic sea with a total of 217 passengers onboard, in the afternoon hours of 9 July. The vessel was en route from Trelleborg, Sweden, to Travemünde, Germany.