Fire Breaks Out on Container Ship Off West Coast, Expelling Toxic Materials: Officials

Jack Phillips
By Jack Phillips
October 24, 2021Americas
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Fire Breaks Out on Container Ship Off West Coast, Expelling Toxic Materials: Officials
Fire cascades down from the deck of the container ship ZIM Kingston into the waters off the coast of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, on Oct. 23, 2021, as seen through a pair of binoculars, in this image obtained via social media. (Surfrider Foundation via Reuters)

A fire broke out on Saturday in containers on a cargo ship carrying chemicals off British Columbia, according to officials with the Canadian Coast Guard, which said that it is working with the U.S. Coast Guard to deal with the incident.

Sixteen crew members have been evacuated from the Zim Kingston, while five remained onboard to battle the fire, the Canadian Coast Guard said in a statement on Saturday. At one point, Coast Guard officials said that as many as 10 containers on the ship—carrying mining chemicals—were on fire.

“The ship is on fire and expelling toxic gas. Two fallen containers are floating in the vicinity of the vessel,” the Canadian Coast Guard said. The ship is currently located in the Strait of Juan De Fuca that separates Canada’s Vancouver Island and Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula.

Meanwhile, an “emergency zone” was set up for one nautical mile around the ship amid firefighting efforts, the Coast Guard told Canada’s GlobalNews.

“Any fire onboard a ship is a serious event and will garner a lot of attention and a lot of resources very quickly,” said Chamber of Shipping President Robert Lewis-Manning.

“Their first action is to figure out what is happening on the vessel. It’s a big vessel. It’s 260 meters long or thereabouts, and it’s got thousands of containers on board, so trying to isolate where the problem is,” he said, adding that it is usually the crew’s responsibility to deal with fires on board container ships.

“No injuries were reported,” Danaos Shipping Co., the company that manages the container ship, said in a statement to Reuters on Sunday, before adding that the fire “appears to have been contained.”

But the ship fire could pose more significant problems in the near future.

“This is extremely concerning. The ship and containers are very close to Victoria, BC, and a big storm is forecast to hit tonight. We … are worried this may be yet another environmental disaster,” said David Boudinot, president of Surfrider Foundation Canada, an environmental organization.

Reuters contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times