Monday, October 25, 2021

UPDATE
16 evacuated from burning shipping vessel off Canada's coast


Ten containers on a shipping vessel caught fire off the coast of Canada on Saturday. 
Photo courtesy of Canadian Coast Guard/Twitter

Oct. 25 (UPI) -- First responders over the weekend evacuated 16 people from a container ship that caught fire off the coast of British Columbia, Canadian authorities said.

Ten containers on the vessel burst into flames about 5 miles off the coast of Victoria and 17 miles north of the U.S.-Canada border on Saturday morning, prompting an evacuation of the Zim Kingston by local and federal agencies, the Canadian Coast Guard said in a statement, adding that the evacuated crew were met at Ogden Point by immigration, healthcare and police officials.

No injuries were reported.

The U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement the situation began mid-day Friday when its Puget Sound sector received a notification that the shipping vessel had lost 40 containers overboard after heeling 35 degrees in heavy swells about 38 miles west of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.


Canadian authorities said the fire was believed to have been mostly extinguished by Sunday. Photo courtesy of Canadian Coast Guard/Twitter

Shortly after 11 a.m. Saturday, Canadian officials noticed a fire within its containers.

Fire fighting activity continued overnight and through Sunday when authorities said it had finally been "stabilized."

"Depending on weather tomorrow, hazardous materials firefighters will board the ship to fight any remaining fires and ensure the fire is out," the coast guard tweeted.

Amid the fire fighting operations, a 2-mile emergency zone was established around the vessel, which is owned by Greece-based Danaos Shipping Co.,

Overnight Saturday, tug boats sprayed the hull with cold water as chemicals onboard prevented dousing the fire directly with water.


Due to hazardous chemicals in the fire, authorities were unable to douse the flames directly and used water to keep adjacent containers cool. Photo courtesy of Canadian Coast Guard/Twitter

Smoke from the fire was being tracked from air quality monitoring stations around the Greater Victoria area, the Canadian Coast Guard said.

During a press conference Sunday, JJ Brickett, the Canadian coast guard's federal incident commander, told reporters that the majority of the fire has been extinguished and it was "smoldering."

"Presumably, everything that was inside those containers has been consumed by the fire," he said.

He explained the plan was to let the containers be consumed by the fire while keeping those around it cool with there being no signs of charring of scaring detected on them.

"That's a really good sign," he said.



U.S. authorities said 35 of the overboard containers have been found with Canadian authorities adding that of those missing two contain hazardous materials and both agencies are warning that they "pose a significant risk to mariners."

"One of the objectives of the response is 100% accountability for all of these containers: where they are, what happened to them, what was in them and to the extent that we can, how can we recover them," Brickett said.

Into Monday morning, two vessels monitored the situation as five crew members remained onboard to fight the fire.

Fire on cargo ship off British Columbia coast reported out



Ships work to control a fire onboard the MV Zim Kingston about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the shore in Victoria, British Columbia, Canaeda, on Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021. The container ship caught fire on Saturday and 16 crew members were evacuated and brought to Ogden Point Pier. 
(Chad Hipolito/The Canadian Press via AP)

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Canadian Coast Guard officials said Sunday a fire that was burning in several containers aboard a cargo ship off the coast of British Columbia appeared to be out.

The Coast Guard said it received word late Saturday morning that a fire had broken out in 10 damaged containers aboard the MV Zim Kingston, which is now anchored about five miles off the provincial capital of Victoria, and that two of the burning containers held hazardous material identified as potassium amylxanthate.

“The majority of the fire is actually out,” JJ Brickett, federal incident commander with the Canadian Coast Guard, said during a teleconference Sunday. “We still see it smoldering.”

The Coast Guard said the hazardous material inside the containers prevented the ship’s crew from spraying cold water directly on the fire. An emergency zone had been doubled to two nautical miles around the Zim Kingston.

Brickett said it was “a really good sign” that there was no indication of scorching or charring on adjacent containers.

“Presumably everything that was inside those containers has been consumed by the fire,” he said. “The fire is smoldering and we’re continuing to cool on either side.”

The Joint Rescue and Coordination Centre in Victoria said 16 crewmembers were safely taken off the ship, while five others, including the captain, remained on board at their own behest.



Ships work to control a fire onboard the MV Zim Kingston about eight kilometres from the shore in Victoria, B.C., on Sunday, October 24, 2021. The container ship caught fire on Saturday and 16 crew members were evacuated and brought to Ogden Point Pier. 
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito/The Canadian Press via AP)

The coast guard said a hazardous materials crew from Vancouver was mobilizing and the owner of the Zim Kingston had contracted the U.S.-based Resolve Marine Group for salvage operations, including firefighting and recovery of the containers.

Danaos Shipping Co. which manages the container ship, said in an emailed statement earlier: “No injuries were reported. The fire appears to have been contained.”

Brickett said the U.S. Coast Guard had dispatched a tracking buoy to monitor 40 containers that fell overboard from the Zim Kingston in choppy waters Friday. The containers were about 27 nautical miles off the west coast of Vancouver Island on Sunday.


Authorities fought the fire overnight Saturday and into Sunday. Photo courtesy of Canadian Coast Guard/Twitter


Two of those containers held “materials we would be concerned about,” Brickett said, but added that “none of our trajectories right now have any of those containers grounding.”

Efforts to retrieve the containers would not be able to start until after a break in a storm that was forecast to worsen until Monday, authorities said.

Brickett said the ship’s owners had “been very responsible” and acted properly in hiring the proper resources. It was too early to say what caused the fire or if it was related to the containers falling overboard, he said.

“Our first priority is to stabilize the scene, put the flames out,” he said.


A total of 40 boxes fell overboard off the ship on Friday after heeling some 35 degrees in heavy swells. Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard/Twitter

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