The fire started with “large amounts” of hydraulic oil and fishing gear catching fire in the forepeak area, and has burned with gusto for 20 hours by now. None of the crew are seriously hurt, but around 100 residents have been evacuated from the surroundings due to fear of uncontrolled venting of the ammonia refrigerant on board. The article doesn’t specify how much we’re talking about, only that there’s “a lot”.
The article also fails to specify the name of the ship, along with a bunch of relevant detail, so additional sources are very welcome.
The trawler has capsized and the fire is out, but the worry is now about pollution from 200 cbm of MDO and sundry other items on board, incl. rotting fish:
The capsizing was predictable. being caused by large amount of water used to fight the fire. A list had developed since yesterday afternoon, but I assume that the judgment was that explosion or toxic gasses from the ammonia on board was a greater risk then oil pollution.
It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that your average trawler carries 1% of its total displacement in polypropylene in the forepeak. That’s a serious amount of fuel right there, before you start counting the barrels of shaft oil, dinghy fuel drums and expired pyrotechnics that tend to gravitate that way as well.
Wasn’t there some US ferry that burned for days after a laundry fire took a vent to the mooring deck, where it found enough rope to keep the party going?
This is a factory trawler, so besides fishing gear there were also a lot of packing material (cardboard and plastic sheet etc) stored on board.
The Bukhta Naezdnik was one of 20 trawlers built at Sterkoder, Norway around 1990 (this one in 1991) They were designed by Skipsteknisk and packed with Norwegian machinery and equipment: http://soviet-trawler.narod.ru/pages/ussr/sterkoder.html
Many of them were sold during the hard times at the fall of the Soviet Union and ended up back in Norway, New Zealand and other places.
Many reminded under Russian flag but owned by foreigners, fishing on Russian quota in the Barents and Bearing Seas.