Salvage Teams Continue to Fight Fires on Two Boxships at Sea

Salvage teams are continuing to work on two different containership fires. Both Seaspan, as the owner of the Espirito Santo Express, and HMM updated on the status of their vessels, highlighting the difficulties the industry faces from fires at sea.

A spokesperson for HMM told The Maritime Executive that the firefighting operations aboard the HMM Platinum are “in the final dampening-down stage. Once the fire is fully extinguished, the vessel is scheduled to proceed to a near port to conduct follow-up measures and investigations.”

The company emphasizes that all 24 crewmembers are safe. The vessel continues, however, to indicate on its AIS transmissions that it is under “Restricted Manoeuvrability” and moving at less than 1 knot. The ship had approached Durban and continued to show it as its destination, but it appears to have moved further out to sea based on the AIS data. The HMM spokesperson told us that the “vessel attempted to proceed to a port in South Africa but is currently remaining offshore due to adverse weather conditions.” Tugs are reported to be standing by as a precaution.

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