Indian Coast Guard fights fire on container ship off Kerala

Indian Coast Guard fights fire on container ship off Kerala

The Indian Coast Guard is currently battling a massive fire on a container ship that is threatening to sink about 15 nautical miles off the coast of Kerala. As the search for four missing crew members continues, footage shows flames and high clouds of smoke rising from the Singapore-flagged MV Wan Hai 503. According to Indian Coast Guard Commander Amit Uniyal, the ship is in the water at an angle of "10 to 15 degrees."

Details about the incident

Explosions continued to be heard on Tuesday, more than 24 hours after the Indian Coast Guard responded to a distress call. At around 9:30 a.m. local time on Monday, the ship's crew reported a fire caused by an explosion. The exact circumstances that led to this explosion are still unclear.

Rescuers in action

Eighteen sailors with “some injuries” were rescued from the stumbling ship, the Maritime and Ports Authority of Singapore said. Unfortunately, four crew members remain missing. The MV Wan Hai 503 is managed by Wan Hai Lines (Singapore) Pte Ltd, which has said it is investigating the incident. CNN has reached out to the company for comment.

Ship details

The 269-meter-long (890-foot) ship had left Colombo, Sri Lanka, on June 7 and was scheduled to arrive in Mumbai, India, on Monday. Uniyal told CNN on Tuesday that the Coast Guard was doing "its best" to control the fire, but the situation was deteriorating. “I can’t tell you if the ship will sink,” Uniyal said. “More and more containers are catching fire.”

Rescue efforts and environmental impacts

Five Indian Coast Guard ships battled the fire on Tuesday and reported sustained explosions from the middle of the ship to the container storage area in front of the living area. Images released by the Indian Coast Guard show flames, black smoke and charred containers. An environmental observation boat is monitoring the rescue efforts, but the extent of the environmental impact is not yet known.

Previous incidents

This event is the second major shipping incident off the Kerala coast in less than a month after the Liberian-flagged MSC ELSA 3 sank on May 25. That ship sank with over 600 containers, including 13 carrying "dangerous cargo," according to the Kerala government, which then declared an environmental emergency and ordered fishermen not to work in the area.

Development of the situation

The Director General of Indian Shipping stated that none of the 61 containers that washed ashore from the MSC ELSA 3 contained dangerous cargo and 51 of these containers were removed from the shoreline by June 9. An underwater operation was launched to seal the sunken ship's oil tanks and ultimately recover the fuel, the office said in a statement.