New York firefighters battle fire on docked ship
New York: New York firefighters were working on Wednesday to put out a fire on board a ship docked in Staten Island’s Homeport Pier in Stapleton.
Fire has been smouldering on the 360-foot motor vessel Grey Shark for three days.
The Panamanian flagged roll-on/roll-off vessel was en route from New York to the Caribbean when it endured failure of one of its two engines, which forced it to return to New York. And on the way back a fire broke out on Sunday.
The ship’s on-board firefighting system contained the initial fire but the smouldering had not been quelled by Wednesday night despite the combined efforts of the FDNY, the New York Police Department, the US Coast Guard and the boat’s owners.
A 150-yard safety zone on the land and in the water surrounding both the vessel and Homeport Pier has been established and will be strictly enforced by the Coast Guard and NYPD.
In a statement on the situation the Coast Guard said: “Once FDNY officials have declared the fire to be completely extinguished, the investigation into the cause of both the fire and the loss of engine power will begin.”