Tuesday, October 26, 2021


Incredible videos show the Canadian Coast Guard using tugboats to drench an 853-foot cargo ship that caught on fire

Zim Kingston fire being extinguished by tug boats
The Canadian National Guard used tugboats to spray the Zim Kingston to keep the blaze from spreading. Canadian National Guard via Twitter
  • Videos show tugboats putting out a fire on the 853-foot Zim Kingston near Canada's Vancouver Island.

  • The cargo ship caught fire on Saturday not long after it lost roughly 40 shipping containers.

  • Officials said they would board the ship Monday to put out any remaining fires if weather permitted.

Videos the Canadian Coast Guard shared on Twitter Sunday show the agency using tugboats to drench the 853-foot cargo ship Zim Kingston with water after it caught fire on Saturday.

Canadian officials on Sunday said the fire aboard the cargo ship had been "stabilized," adding that a crew of hazardous materials firefighters planned to board the ship on Monday to "fight any remaining fires" if the weather permitted.

According to an early Monday Reuters report, 16 crew members were evacuated from the ship on Saturday while five remained on the ship to help keep the fire under control.

The tugboats sprayed water on the ship to keep the fire from spreading while the blaze burned itself out, the Canadian Coast Guard told Reuters.

The agency ordered all ship traffic to stay 2 nautical miles away from the ship. The Canadian Transport Ministry restricted all aircraft from flying within 2 nautical miles of the ship or fewer than 2,000 feet above it, Reuters reported.

"We can't see any scorching or charring of those adjacent containers - that's a really good sign," said Canadian Coast Guard Commander JJ Brickett, according to Reuters. "The fire is smoldering as you would expect, and we're continuing to cool on either side."

Officials said air quality monitoring stations around the area were monitoring the smoke coming from the ship. Danaos Shipping Co, the company that manages the vessel, said on Sunday it had no injuries to report as a result of the fire.

As Insider previously reported, the fire broke out on the Zim Kingston on Saturday while it was anchored off the coast of Canada's Vancouver Island. The fire occurred just one day after it lost about 40 shipping containers. Some of the containers that fell off the ship contained hazardous materials, officials said.

At least 35 of the containers have been located, the US Coast Guard said in a press release Sunday.

The blaze started in damaged containers that were still on board the vessel, the Canadian Coast Guard said.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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