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The authorities on Saturday continued to evaluate easy methods to combat a hearth that broke out two days in the past aboard a cargo ship that’s carrying almost 2,000 tons of lithium-ion batteries and was ordered to stay off the Alaskan coast.
The U.S. Coast Guard stated there have been no accidents to the 19 crew members aboard the vessel, Genius Star XI, and that it remained seaworthy.
The precise reason for the hearth was not identified and stays beneath investigation. The Coast Guard was not instantly capable of verify who owns the vessel or say what different cargo it’s carrying. The ship’s level of origin and vacation spot have been unavailable.
The fireplace broke out in cargo holds the place lithium-ion batteries, which comprise extremely flammable supplies, have been being saved.
“These are highly regarded, very energetic fires,” stated Richard Burke, a professor of naval structure and marine engineering on the State College of New York Maritime Faculty. Such fires may be long-lasting and tough to place out, he added.
The Coast Guard ordered the vessel to stay two miles offshore from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and officers established a one-mile security zone across the vessel during the response effort.
A hearth occurred in two separate cargo holds, stated Lt. Cmdr. Michael Salerno, a spokesman for the seventeenth Coast Guard District, which covers 47,300 miles of shoreline all through Alaska and the Arctic.
Firefighting methods on the vessel extinguished one of many fires. Members of the crew sealed off the opposite cargo maintain and have been taking temperature readings, which have been regular as of Saturday, Commander Salerno stated.
There have been no indicators of warmth injury outdoors the cargo maintain, and the authorities plan to observe the temperature to see whether or not it continues to go down.
A workforce of marine firefighting specialists who boarded the ship on Thursday to evaluate its situation discovered no indicators of structural deformation or blistering outdoors the compartment, the Coast Guard stated.
That the ship continues to be intact and afloat is nice information for the atmosphere, Professor Burke stated.
These ships can carry tons of of hundreds of tons of cargo, reminiscent of silk blouses, beer, laptops and different business items, which might doubtlessly contaminate the ocean if the ship have been to sink.
“The ship additionally has gas,” he famous. “When you lose the ship, the gas goes into the ocean as properly.”
Whereas cargo ship fires are rare, they don’t seem to be unheard-of, Professor Burke stated.
In July, a cargo ship carrying almost 3,000 vehicles off the Dutch island of Ameland within the North Sea caught hearth, killing one crew member and injuring 22 others.
In 2022, a cargo ship carrying about 4,000 vehicles, together with Porsches and Bentleys, caught hearth 250 miles off the Azores and two weeks later ended up sinking.
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