The Indian Coast Guard on Thursday, 14 June, rescued all 22 crew members of a merchant container vessel after a devastating fire broke out in the ship in the Bay of Bengal, a senior coast guard official said.
Indian Coast Guard ship Rajkiran rescued the Indian flag container vessel MV SSL KOLKATA from Bay of Bengal, an official statement said. The vessel had reported fire onboard at around midnight, 55 nautical miles off Sands Head. The Coast Guard ship was dispatched from the Haldia and Coast Dornier and reached the flaming vessel at 08:00 am.
Due to very rough sea and strong winds/inclement weather the fire spread very fast like wild fire. By the time the rescue ship reached the ship, about 70 per cent of vessel was on fire and master of the vessel decided to abandon the vessel, the statement said.
The container carrier was on coastal voyage from Krishnapatnam to Kolkata with 22 crew (all Indians) and 464 containers.
“Our coast guard ship arrived in the area in the morning. The captain decided to save the crew and abandon the ship. On his request, we have successfully picked up all the 22 survivors. As of now, all 22 people are being brought to Haldia in the coast guard ship,” Coast Guard Commander (NE) Inspector General K.S. Sheoran said.
“The sea was very bad at the accident site. There were high waves and the wind was very strong. Almost 60-70 percent of the ship was on fire by that time,” he said.
The reason of the fire is still not confirmed.
According to the Coast Guard, the owners of the ship, Shreyas Shipping & Logistics have hired tugboats from the nearby ports that would work on salvage operation of the remaining goods, unaffected in the blaze.
“The owner of the ship has hired big tugboats from Haldia port and Dhamra port in Odisha. They have also engaged salvage companies from Singapore. The salvage operations will start after sometime. The first priority was to save the captain and the crew, which the coast guard has done successfully,” the officer added.