Maersk Line’s Maersk Kampala is presently fighting a fire in the two foremost cargo bays of the vessel.
The vessel is fully manoeuverable, but drifting south of the Suez Canal. All crew are accounted for and no injuries reported.
The fire originated in one container at the bottom of a stack at approximately 21:00 on 28 August before spreading to a second container. At the time, the vessel was heading north towards the Suez Canal.
Fire Fighting Tugs
On Friday evening into Saturday late morning weather conditions prevented fire fighting tugs from getting close enough to have maximum effect. As a result the fire spread to several more containers, but was contained in the two foremost bays.
Fire Fighting Team
An additional fire-fighting team was dispatched to the vessel and was supposed to arrive in the evening of 29 August. As the tug hired to take them to the vessel broke down, they eventually reached the vessel in the evening of 30 August.
Six Containers Still on Fire
Saturday and Sunday saw weather improve and fire fighting tugs on scene have been able to continue soaking the area and have managed to reduce the number of containers still with fire to six, all contained in the same bays.
Cutting Open Hot Containers
The fire fighting team onboard is now well into the process of extinguishing the fire inside containers by cutting open the hot containers as well as those nearby and flooding them with water. To speed up this process, Maersk Line reported an additional fire fighting team will come aboard this evening (2 September).
Picture by Maersk Line
