A fire broke out on container ship Maersk Frankfurt (IMO: 9969065) on Friday July 19th when the vessel was about 102nm southwest of Goa, India.
Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) received a distress call from the vessel and the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) sent three vessels, the Sachet, Sujeet, and Samrat, to conduct firefighting and rescue operations, along with an aircraft to assist in the search and rescue efforts. The ICG reported that the containership was carrying International Maritime Dangerous Goods and that the explosion occurred in the front part of the vessel.
Maersk said: “We can confirm that a fire was reported onboard one of our time chartered vessels, Maersk Frankfurt, around 14:30 IST while the vessel was sailing from Mundra to Colombo. Firefighting is underway with support from the Indian Coast Guard. The vessel is in stable condition.”
Maersk continued: “At the moment, we are unable to confirm the extent of the fire’s impact on the chartered vessel, Maersk Frankfurt. We are in constant touch with the vessel owner and ship managers. The safety of the crew remains the top priority at this moment.”
In a Saturday update, the Indian Coast Guard said that three firefighting vessels (see above) had been fighting the fire for 12 hours, preventing the blaze from spreading. A fourth vessel, the Varaha, joined the operation on Sunday.
The fire in the forepart had been suppressed, but heavy smoke persists and has reignited midship, the ICG said late Saturday.
A helicopter has been deployed and has dumped 150 kg of dry chemical powder to help control the blaze.
On Sunday the ICG said that “dedicated efforts by ICG ships overnight have suppressed the fire again”
2024-built, Panama-flagged, 57,872 gt Maersk Frankfurt is owned by Leo Ocean / Tokei Kaiun care of Tokei Kaiun Ltd of Imabari, Japan. It is managed by Maersk AS of Copenhagen, Denmark. ISM manager is Bernhard Schulte HKG LP of Hong Kong, China. It is entered with UK Club on behalf of Tokei Kaiun Ltd. As of July 20th it was off the west coast of India en route form Mundra, India, to Colombo, Sr Lanka, ETA July 22nd.