The container ship Rhine Maersk had to make an emergency port call in the Canary Islands due to dangerously high temperatures detected in several cargo containers. The ship was on a voyage from Abidjan to Algeciras when it diverted to Tenerife. Five containers filled with charcoal began to self-heat, posing a significant risk during storage and transport.
Emergency responders at the port quickly extinguished the fire by injecting water into the affected containers and cooling adjacent units. The local fire department also dispatched units as a precaution, although the situation was under control by the time they arrived. Rhine Maersk moved to Tenerife’s container terminal to offload the fire-damaged boxes and will resume operations once salvage operations are complete.
This incident underscores the ongoing safety challenge in container shipping, with container ship fires remaining a persistent threat. Despite a decline in overall vessel losses, these fires still occur on average every 60 days. Captain Andrew Kinsey of Allianz’s maritime division highlighted the issue of misdeclared and incorrectly packaged cargo, calling for better enforcement of regulations and guidelines.
The Rhine Maersk incident follows a more serious fire on another Maersk vessel, the Maersk Frankfurt, off the Indian coast in July. That blaze, which took four days to extinguish and tragically claimed the life of a crew member, originated in a container and quickly spread. The need for improved safety measures and adherence to regulations in the shipping industry is evident in these recent incidents.
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