New Delhi: The fire onboard a Singapore-flagged cargo vessel that occurred June 9 following a container explosion off the Kerala coast has now been ‘largely contained’ and efforts are underway for boundary cooling to avoid any flare-up, Indian Coast Guard (ICG) officials said Saturday.
A spokesperson of the ICG said that a total of 11 ICG ships are currently deployed for the firefighting operation on cargo vessel MV Wan Hai 503.
The incident took place at approximately 9:20am IST June 9, around 44 nautical miles off Azhikkal in the Kannur district of Kerala and 130 nautical miles northwest of Kochi.
Earlier in the day, ICG spokesperson Comdt Amit Uniyal told PTI, “Eight ICG ships — Sachet, Samarth, Saksham, Samudra Prahari, Vikram, Rajdoot, Kasturba Gandhi and Arnvesh — are participating in the firefighting operations”.
In the evening, he said, while the fire has “largely been contained”, three more ICG ships (total 11 ships) have been deployed.
Additionally, an offshore patrol vessel of the ICG is carrying out mid-sea refuelling of a salvage tug to sustain the towing operation, the official said.
The ICG Friday said that it had achieved a “major milestone” in the ongoing operation to suppress fire onboard cargo vessel MV Wan Hai 503, as its towing commenced to keep the ship away from the coast.
Saturday, the firefighting operations continued, with the ICG spokesperson saying that “continuous boundary cooling is in progress”.
The Indian Navy Saturday shared some details of what it described as a “daring aerial insertion” of a salvage team onboard the vessel a day ago.
“In a prompt response, the salvage team members were embarked onboard a Seaking helicopter at INS Garuda, Kochi. The Naval helicopter successfully inserted the team on the vessel amidst challenging weather and sea conditions and fire onboard,” a Navy spokesperson said.
The salvage team was winched down and connected up tow with the salvage tug Offshore Warrior. After the connection of the tow, the salvage team was successfully extracted by the naval helicopter from the vessel, he said.
Presently, the Indian Navy’s “INS Sharda and OSV MV Triton Liberty are actively engaged” with the salvage operation in coordination with the Indian Coast Guard and other maritime agencies, the official added.
This swift insertion and extraction of the salvage team by the Indian Navy have significantly reinforced the rescue efforts, he said.
Of the 22 crew members of the Singapore-flagged vessel, 18 were rescued by the Navy, the ICG and other agencies June 9.
The crew members include eight Chinese, six Taiwanese, five Myanmarese, and three Indonesian nationals, the ICG had said in a statement.
PTI