Hapag-Lloyd informed that after the fire onboard the container ship ‘Yantian Express’ was brought under control, the responsible salvage master from the company Smit decided to sail the vessel to the Port of Freeport, in Bahamas.
Upon arrival, the recovery and assessment efforts of the cargo can continue in a safer environment. Currently, the container ship is about 1250 nautical miles from the Bahamas and is expected to arrive in Freeport by next week. The ‘Yantian Express’ currently sails with its own machine and in tug escort.
However, Hapag-Lloyd said that it is still not possible to precisely estimate any damage to the ship or its cargo.
The fire broke out on 3 January in one of the containers onboard the 7,510 TEU container ship ‘Yantian Express’ approximately 1,015 miles northeast of Bermuda and spread to additional containers. The ship was en route from Colombo to Halifax via the Suez Canal, at the time of the incident.
On the aftermath, 11 non-essential crew members were evacuated to the tugboat Smit Nicobar and Sunday morning all remaining crew were evacuated to the Smit Nicobar, because the fire was not successfully contained. All of the crewmen are safe.
Immediate efforts were launched to put out the fire, but they had to be stopped because of a deterioration of weather conditions.