> Shipping Online: Negligence sparked a fire on cargo ships 40 million US dollars burned
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Shipping Online: Negligence sparked a fire on cargo ships 40 million US dollars burned

Shipping Online: Negligence sparked a fire on cargo ships 40 million US dollars burned

2021-12-20 18:38:59

The battery of the second-hand car on board is not properly disconnected

Subsequent circuit failure

Caused a fire on a car carrier

In the end it caused a loss of 40 million US dollars!

The e-commerce platform MarineOnline learned that on December 16, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a report on the investigation results of the fire on the Hegh Xiamen car carrier last year.

 

 

01 The fire detection system did not start in time

On June 4, 2020, the ship Hegh Xiamen caught fire in the Port of Jacksonville, Florida, USA. The ship and the 2,420 used cars it was loaded with were all lost.

 

 

The fire burned for more than a week and the total damage was estimated at 40 million U.S. dollars. Nine firefighters were injured, and 21 crew members on board were not injured.

 

 

In August of the same year, after the salvage operation was completed, the ship was towed to Turkey for recovery.

 

 

Shipping Online saw in the report that before the incident, the Hegh Xiamen ship was preparing to depart for Baltimore, Maryland. The crew suddenly noticed that there was smoke in the ventilation hood, deck 8 was on fire, and the deck was full of used cars. The fire eventually spread to other decks and lasted for 8 days before extinguishing.

 

 

After investigation, the batteries of many vehicles on the ship were not disconnected and fixed in accordance with the procedures.

 

 

NTSB believes that this increases the risk of electric arcs (sparks that are generated instantaneously when current passes through certain insulating media such as air) and component failures. During the loading operation, neither the loader nor the crew were aware of the danger.

 

 

The investigation also revealed that the ship's fire detection system has not been restarted after the loading is completed, so the fire detection has been delayed.

 

 

In addition, the captain of the Hegh Xiamen did not find the contact information of the rescue agency in time, and did not know how to report the fire to the local government, so the fire department failed to rescue in time.

 

 

02 Five similar accidents have occurred since 2015

 

 

The NTSB determined that the possible cause of the fire was Grimaldi Deep Sea (the time charterer) and SSA Atlantic (Grimaldi's stevedore contractor) ineffectively supervising the dock workers, and did not find that the workers did not follow Grimaldi's vehicle battery fixing procedures.

 

 

The report pointed out that the battery of a second-hand car on deck 8 was not properly disconnected, causing a circuit failure. The fire was not detected in time because the crew did not restart the ship's fire detection system immediately after the cargo was loaded. The fire spread because the captain decided to postpone the release of a fixed carbon dioxide fire extinguishing system.

 

 

According to statistics, five similar accidents have occurred since 2015. The NTSB report pointed out that car carrier operators must ensure that crews, stevedores, and dock workers understand the importance of disconnecting used car batteries.

 

 

The person in charge of Maritime Online's maritime service business said that second-hand cars are usually damaged to a certain degree, which will bring greater fire risks. Therefore, to transport this kind of goods, relevant safety procedures must be strictly followed, and inspection and supervision must be strengthened to reduce risks as much as possible.