Muscat: The fire on the fore section of the stricken MOL Comfort boxship continues to burn out of control for a fifth straight day with neither the appointed salvage team, Smit, nor the Indian Coast Guard able to control it and eyewitness reports saying most of the containers on deck have now caught fire.
A fire broke out from the rear end of the fore part of the 7,000 teu ship on July 6, and one tug boat and two rescue boats responded to the fire. On top of these three boats, the salvage company requested the assistance of the Indian Coast Guard for fire fighting, and their patrol boat Samudra Prahari with an external fire fighting system, arrived at the scene early on July 8, and started fire fighting with the others immediately.
Citing “adverse weather”, the ship’s owner Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) of Japan said in a release today, the fire is not yet under control.
“Observations show that most of the containers on deck have been burnt out, while we have not been able to confirm the situation in the cargo hold. The fire fighting effort and monitoring of the situation will continue,” MOL reported in its 23rd update on the MOL Comfort accident.
The MOL Comfort split in two on June 17 200 nautical miles off Yemen with the stern section sinking 10 days later. [10/07/13]
