A recent Riviera news source speaks about responding to major fires, hazardous wrecks.
Salvors tackled ship blazes
Salvors tackled ship blazes in the Americas and helped remove dangerous wrecks in the Mediterranean and Middle East.
Salvage companies have handled burning ships and platforms, dangerous wrecks and disabled ships to prevent further accidents, damage and environmental issues.
In the US, a consortium of federal, state and local organisations, companies and fire services tackled a fire that swept through a vehicle and container carrier in Port Newark, New Jersey on the east coast.
A unified command was formed to extinguish the fire on 2011-built Grande Costa D’Avorio and by 9 July, the flames were dowsed, and responders were monitoring for further heat sources.
This Italy-flagged, 47,232-gt cargo ship caught fire in the port 5 July at 21:30 and fire-fighting crews were sent to tackle the blaze.
The unified command was formed, consisting of the US Coast Guard (USCG), the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Newark Fire Department and Gallagher Marine Systems. Its operational priorities were ensuring the safety of the public and first responders, conducting fire suppression, protecting the environment and ensuring economic and operational activities in the port area were minimally affected.
Fire started as crew on Grande Costa D’Avorio loaded cars on to the vessel. Once they detected the blaze, crew immediately activated onboard fire suppression procedures while the local fire department was alerted.
1,200 vehicles and 157 containers on board were scheduled to be exported, with no electric vehicles or hazardous cargo reported aboard.
Fire-fighters worked to extinguish the fire, both from the pier and from the waterside using at least one tug with water pump and monitors. Crews gained access to the upper decks of the vessel, which was believed to be the primary source of the fire. Unfortunately, by 6 July, two fatalities and six injuries had been sustained during fire-fighting aboard the vessel.
Fire was brought under control
Fire was brought under control and extinguished by 7 July. By 10 July, the 11th deck on Grande Costa D’Avorio was being monitored and overhauled to address any remaining heat sources. Responders dewatered spaces as necessary to ensure the ship’s stability.
Newark Fire Department and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection continued to monitor air quality during operations to ensure safe working conditions and public safety. They had not detected any issues above hazardous levels in the surrounding areas since monitoring began. During the incident, the Port of New York and New Jersey remained open and operational.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire with all parties at federal, state and local levels working with the shipowner, operator and manager during the investigation.
In Brazil, emergency response teams tackled a fire on 2005-built container ship Monte Sarmiento near Paranaguá. Fire was thought to have started in the engineroom 23 June, and seafarers on board activated the fixed CO2 system to suppress the flames.
However, fire spread to a container on the aft. Seafarers were evacuated and a vessel, maritime rescue teams and salvors were mobilised to help extinguish the fire and stabilise the ship.
In Mexico, support vessels were mobilised 7 July to tackle a blaze on offshore platform Nohoch Alfa at the Cantarell oil and gas field in the Bay of Campeche. At least two workers were killed, three were injured and one person was missing after fire broke out and spread to a compression platform, which had 328 workers on board.
State energy group Pemex says 321 workers were evacuated safely and four offshore vessels were dispatched to contain the fire and prevent its spread to other platforms in the area.
In Bangladesh, two explosions and fire severely damaged a product tanker and a lightering ship, injuring 18 workers.
An explosion and fire on SHR Navigation-owned tanker OT Shagor Nandini-2 damaged superstructure and burned at least four crew at the Padma terminal on the Sugandha river. It was waiting to unload its cargo of diesel and petroleum at the time.
On 3 July, during ship-to-ship transfer operations, another explosion and fire occurred on OT Shagor Nandini-2 causing further damage and 14 more victims. Flames engulfed the tanker, and the smaller lightering vessels close by.
In Indonesia, fire broke out 3 July on tug Paiton as it towed a coal barge in Musi river, Bangka Strait, from Palembang in Sumatra to Indramayu, West Java. All 10 crew were rescued, although four were badly injured, and fire-fighters extinguished the blaze.
Wreck removal
In Gibraltar, the wreck of OS35 bulk carrier was removed from the sea outside of the port in June. Koole Contractors lifted the wreck on to its semi-submersible barge Fjord as planned, but it took longer than expected. It says this is a “significant accomplishment” for the project and the company.
The sunken ship was cut in two at a point which avoided the oil tanks. During June, salvors worked to lift the two sections of the wreck from the seabed. While the stern was refloated, the bow was hoisted using chains. Both sections were loaded on to Fjord with support from tugs, multi cats, workboats and crane barges, to be transported to a specialist recycling shipyard near Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Operations were delayed due to persistent rough weather in Q2 2023. After removing the main wreck sections, work continued to clear the area of debris and pollution.
OS35 bulk carrier broke in two during a storm in Q1 2023, months after it collided with an LNG carrier in August 2022.
Koole Contractors purchased Fjord in March 2023 for this wreck removal and future heavy transport projects. It was towed to Gibraltar by Koole’s 2011-built anchor-handling tug Norne after three months of maintenance and class inspections in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
In Brazil, PortoRio removed the wrecks of five vessels near Ilha da Conceição, in Niterói. These abandoned, stranded vessels in Guanabara Bay were navigation hazards. Authorities overseeing the Ports of Rio de Janeiro have identified 51 abandoned vessels and hulls in the bay to be removed.
FSO Safer
In Yemen, Boskalis is making progress in removing a decaying floating storage and offloading (FSO) tanker to prevent a humanitarian and environmental disaster.
Under United Nations command, Boskalis is responsible for transferring liquid cargo from FSO Safer on to a structurally sound FSO Nautica, formerly a Euronav VLCC, when the vessel arrives on site.
By the end of June, Boskalis salvage vessel Ndeavor arrived on site to help transfer the oil from the decaying tanker and two Smit Lamnalco tugs were ready to assist with berthing the replacement tanker.
On 27 June, Boskalis said its colleagues from subsidiary Smit Salvage had completed inspections and oil transfer preparations on board Safer.
“Over the past two weeks, further good progress has been made by Smit Salvage to prepare FSO Safer for the oil transfer phase of the operation,” says Boskalis. “Recent work has focused on inspecting and reinstating equipment on board FSO Safer. This includes various winches required for the mooring operation and the stripping pumps to transfer the last remains of the cargo to the replacement oil tanker alongside.” Divers completed inspecting the hull of the FSO. For contingency purposes, oil booms were installed as a precautionary measure during the ship-to-ship transfer of the oil.
The UN Development Programme led the salvage attempt of Safer, purchased Nautica from Euronav and contracted Smit Salvage and Ndeavor to transfer the oil between the tankers off Yemen’s Red Sea coast.
In the US, a salvage team has refloated a fishing vessel that sank near California’s Santa Cruz Island. Operations included underwater inspections, refloating, stabilisation and safely transferring the vessel to a safe harbour. This was overseen by the USCG and California Office of Spill Prevention and Response. Fishing boat Sea Jay sank 15 June after striking a rock near Santa Cruz Island during a charter fishing trip. All 14 people on board were rescued and the cause of the incident is under investigation.
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Source: Riviera
