VASCO: The ongoing firefighting by Coast Guard to put out the blaze on the merchant ship M V Maersk Frankfurt entered the 10th day on Sunday.
The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) ships are undertaking boundary cooling and extinguishing sporadic minor flames that erupt from time to time in the ill-fated Panamanian flag cargo carrier due to the initial incineration of sealed containers, informed ICG.
MV Maersk Frankfurt ship reported major fire around 80 nautical miles west of Goa coast on July 19.
Of the 21 foreign crew onboard, one Philipino national was missing and later confirmed to be dead. The other crew members are safe and are in good health. The vessel is structurally stable and remains operational, the ICG said in a statement.
As of now, five ICG ships, two ALH helicopters and one Dornier aircraft had undertaken multiple sorties as part of 'Operation Sahayata’ launched by the ICG regional Headquarters (west), Mumbai. To save lives onboard, ensure safety of property and safeguard marine environment from any after effects of the fire onboard the cargo carrier. More than 1,200 kgs of dry chemical powder was airdropped at seat of fire.
The ICG has repositioned ICG Ship Samudra Prahari, a specialised pollution control vessel, since the commencement of Operation Sahayata to New Mangalore to take corrective measure in an unlikely case of pollution. The specialised vessel is also equipped with Dynamic Positioning System which enables it to engage in fire fighting at very close distance from the cargo carrier.
The ICG held two coordination meetings with Director General of Shipping, State administration, stakeholders, ports, salvage agency, ship owners and management to review the progress and find an early end to the crisis. The outlook remains positive and presently, the situation was under control and risk to the marine environment and coastal areas does not exist. The ICG is maintaining physical presence at site with at least two offshore patrol vessels engaged in firefighting and operation coordination 24x7.
The owners/DPA of the vessel has contracted a specialised salvage agency to take over firefighting efforts and for further disposal of the vessel. ICG received request to facilitate embarkation of the salvors onboard the distressed vessel. As of today,five salvors are onboard the vessel and the agency has mobilised two Ocean going tugs, Albattros 5 and Maha Wewa to supplement ICG efforts.
Tug Creative-I with specialised tools and additional salvors is expected to reach the distressed vessel around Sunday noon. Another AHTS vessel Valiant has departed Sharjah and is likely to join the efforts by July 30.