Mearsk Honman,Yanitan Express and now Grande Americe all within a short while.
At the same time various articles on gCaptain seem to indicate pressure on shipping prices as the China US trade war deepens. Connectin or coincidence?
Or is a number of container fires to be expected given the huge numbers of boxes being moved about the oceans?
Well yes, obviously. Something is bound to go wrong sooner or later if you keep operating with any level of risk, but what’s going on now is well north of what you’d expect. Misdeclaration of dangerous goods seems to be a major contributor to the trend.
There are things that could be done, such as strict segregation of DG containers with air gaps and water curtains, etc. I’ll leave it up to the risk benefit analysts in the room to figure out if that makes sense. However, it won’t do much good at all if the rampant practice of misdeclaration is allowed to continue.
Maybe something will be done to stop misdeclaration of dangerous goods in containers:
https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/iumi-acts-on-preventing-fires-on-container-vessels/
Reviving this thread.
A lengthy article about the dangers of, and possible solutions for, fire due to wrongly declared content by shippers:
Interesting read.
More on the subject of misdeclared dangerous goods in containers:
Another fire on board a container ship:
You are on it Bug, this shit happens way too often.
And one more. This time a smaller Feeder on fire in India:
I’m not up on the relevant laws – why aren’t shippers of these misdeclared/poorly packed containers massively liable for the damages?
Pressure is still on re: container fires:
Long article by Maritime Lawyer firm Campbell Johnston Clark Limited:
The Dutch to the rescue:
Update:
Even the Dutch couldn’t do anything before she blew:
It seems a pity the shippers who precipitated this mess likely won’t be held fully accountable.
Look, it’s the Black Pearl, the ghost ship…
/s
I wonder why, with all the high power tugs around the area, they couldn’t have pulled the stern into the wind early on to allow more effective firefighting.
Surprise, surprise Sri Lanka may sue the owner and crew of the X-Press Pearl:
What about the shipper that didn’t pack dangerous cargo properly?
Or the ports that refused entry for the ship to fix the problem before it became a catastrophe? (See post #14)
Low hanging fruit for low life lawyers.
my box ship buddies tell me the shipper wont exist by the time they start looking…