Vessel fire case: Firefighting continues, 8 ICG ships deployed

Firefighting continues, 8 ICG ships deployed

The Indian Coast continued its relentless firefighting on Saturday with eight ICG ships currently on deployment, five days after a fire onboard a Singapore-flagged cargo vessel that occurred following a container explosion off the Kerala coast, officials said.

Additionally, an offshore patrol vessel of the ICG is carrying out mid-sea refuelling of a salvage tug to sustain towing operation, they said.

The ICG on Friday said that it had achieved a "major milestone" in the ongoing operation to suppress fire onboard cargo vessel MV Wan Hai 503, which occurred following a container explosion on June 9 as its towing commenced to keep the ship away from the coast.

On Saturday, the relentless firefighting operations continued.

"Eight ICG ships — Sachet, Samarth, Saksham, Samudra Prahari, Vikram, Rajdoot, Kasturba Gandhi and Arnvesh — are participating in the firefighting operations," Spokesperson, Coast Guard, Comdt Amit Uniyal, told PTI.

He added that "continuous boundary cooling is in progress".

The incident occurred at approximately 9.20 am IST, around 44 nautical miles off Azhikkal in the Kannur district of Kerala and 130 nautical miles northwest of Kochi.

A day earlier, the ICG in a post on X said, "Major milestone in the ongoing operation to suppress the fire onboard MV WAN HAI 503 and protect marine environment! @IndiaCoastGuard ships undertaking FF Op enabled tow connect up of Salvage vessel in extremely challenging and daunting operation. @indiannavy Sea King helicopter was tasked by #HQSNC to winch down salvors who shifted the tow from #ICG ships to Salvage Tugs".

The Indian Navy on Saturday shared some details of what it described as a "daring aerial insertion" of a salvage team onboard the vessel a day ago.

"In a prompt response, the salvage team members were embarked onboard a Seaking helicopter at INS Garuda, Kochi. The Naval helicopter successfully inserted the team on the vessel amidst challenging weather and sea conditions and fire onboard," a Navy spokesperson said.

The salvage team was winched down and connected up tow with the salvage tug Offshore Warrior. After the connection of the tow, the salvage team was successfully extracted by the naval helicopter from the vessel, he said.

Presently, the Indian Navy's "INS Sharda and OSV MV Triton Liberty are actively engaged" with the salvage operation in coordination with the Indian Coast Guard and other maritime agencies, the official added.

This swift insertion and extraction of the salvage team by the Indian Navy have significantly reinforced the rescue efforts, he said.

Of the 22 crew members of the Singapore-flagged vessel, 18 were rescued by the Navy, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and other agencies on Monday.

The crew members include eight Chinese, six Taiwanese, five Myanmarese, and three Indonesian nationals, the ICG said in a statement on June 9.

The fire on board the Singapore-flagged container vessel has been largely contained, though it is still not fully under control, defence sources said on Wednesday.