Maersk to probe shipboard fire with eye to misdeclared cargo causes


Maersk group will investigate the fire that broke out last week on its 15,500-TEU Eugen Maersk off Aden with a view to determining whether the blaze was the result of cargo misdeclarations.

DANISH shipping giant Maersk group will investigate the fire that broke out last week on its 15,500-TEU Eugen Maersk off Aden with a view to determining whether the blaze was the result of cargo misdeclarations.

The contents of the damaged container and of four others that caught fire were declared to be household goods, Maersk said, adding that none should have contained hazardous material.

Fire aboard broke out in the Gulf of Aden heading on an Asia-Europe run, forcing the ship to put into Djibouti where affected containers were discharged before the ship continued its voyage.
The fire broke out at the time when the 8,110-TEU MOL Comfort broke in two in a storm off Yemen, reported Lloyd's Loading List, adding that suspicions have been aroused that that accident have been the result of cargo weight misdeclarations.

A combination of stress on the hull during the storm, plus containers loaded in the wrong part of the ship because of inaccurate cargo information, is now a legitimate line of inquiry, said one source.

The MOL Comfort casualty is reminiscent of another containership incident in 1997. The 2,860-TEU MSC Carla broke in two off the Canary Islands, but in that case the ship had been lengthened and the fracture occurred close to the weld line.

More recently, a mid-Atlantic blaze severely damaged the 6,750-TEU MSC Flaminia last year, killing three crew. The fire is thought to have started in a container in the hold, adding to industry worry about cargo safety, said the report.





Comments