Fire on cargo ship off Karwar under control, 1 crew member missing

The fire on a merchant vessel off the Karwar coast has been brought under control after more than 24 hours but one of the ship's 21 crew members was missing, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) said on Saturday 20 July.

Three ICG ships were dispatched to conduct firefighting operations after the Coast Guard received a message about a fire onboard the Maersk Frankfurt at 2.10 pm on Friday.

The present position of the vessel is 17 miles from Karwar in Karnataka, a release from the ICG said.

The merchant vessel carrying 1,154 containers also has dangerous cargo like benzene and sodium cyanate, and necessary care was being taken while conducting fire-fighting operations, said Bhisham Sharma, Inspector General and Commander Coast Guard, Region West. The Maersk Frankfurt caught fire about 102 nautical miles southwest of Goa on Friday when it was on its way from Mundra to Colombo.

The Coast Guard first pressed its Advanced Offshore Vessel ICG Sachet into service to douse the fire, and later ICG ships Sujeet and Samrat were also dispatched besides Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv Mark III and a Dornier, Sharma told reporters in Mumbai. "The fire is under control and no more flames are being noticed, only white fumes (are seen) which is an indicator that fire is localised," he said.

Squally winds, inclement weather and low visibility were posing a challenge to the fire-fighting, he noted.

The merchant vessel had 21 crew members -- 17 Filipinos, two Ukrainians, one Montenegrin and a Russian -- and one of the Filipino crew members was missing while the other 20 were safe, Sharma said.

The three Coast Guard ships were working on a rotational basis to pump out water and spray AFFF (Aqueous Film Forming Foam), a fire suppressant used to extinguish flammable liquid fires such as fuel fires, especially onboard ships.

Separately, the helicopter is also being used to pour dry chemicals to extinguish the fire, the official said.