Another livestock carrier caught fire yesterday night, the third such incident to hit the sector this year. Fire crews have only just finished putting out the fire. The ship, Awassi Express, fortunately was carrying grain, not livestock, when it caught fire yesterday at Portland off the coast of Victoria in Australia.
, fortunately was carrying grain, not livestock, when it caught fire yesterday at Portland off the coast of Victoria in Australia.A silo filled with 800 tonnes of grain caught fire on the ship leading fire crews to work throughout the night to contain the damage. How the fire started is still being investigated.
Livestock carriers have been in the news a lot this year. One caught fire in Indonesia in May with many cattle dying, another suffered a blaze off Crete in August, while in July a 30-year-old livestock carrier sank in the Gulf of Aden killing all the animals onboard and two of the 29 crew and one month ago a livestock carrier capsized and sank while berthed in Brazil. The elderly average age profile of the global livestock carrier fleet has been brought into question.
