YANTIAN EXPRESS

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Investigation report into fire published

On Jan 30, 2020, Germany's Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation (BSU) has released its report into the container fire aboard the 'Yantian Express' and it has determined that the blaze was likely caused by a misdeclared cargo of charcoal. In the early hours of Jan 3, 2019, a fire broke out in a container stowed on the deck of the Yantian Express above Hold 2 while she was under way in the North Atlantic. With winds of Force 8-9, cold temperatures and rain, the conditions on deck were challenging for the firefighting team. By that night, the crew's supply of SCBA air tanks was spent and they had to cease active firefighting efforts. Despite this limitation, they set up fire hoses to cool the perimeter in an attempt to slow the spread. Upon a request from the shipowner, the offshore tug Smit Nicobar diverted to the scene, and she provided assistance with her firefighting monitors beginning the evening of January 4. However, the fire continued to spread. 11 crewmembers evacuated to the Smit Nicobar, and the remaining 11 followed suit on the afternoon of Jan 6. A small team returned on board Jan 7 in order to set up a towing connection to the large offshore tug Maersk Mobilizer, which had also diverted to the scene. On January 15, a team of professional firefighters and salvors arrived aboard the AHTS 'Sovereign', and they managed to extinguish all burning containers on deck by Jan 21. The effort to put out the last burning containers belowdecks in Hold 1 continued until Jan 26. The 'Maersk Mobilizer' towed the cotnainer ship to Freeport in the Bahamas, where the damaged containers were offloaded and inspectors boarded the ship. When BSU officials entered the containers that were stowed near the location where the fire broke out, they found that one box with a declared cargo of coconut pellets (compressed fiber used for feed or fertilizer) was actually a cargo of coconut charcoal, also known as pyrochar. Lab testing of some of the surviving charcoal cubes from this container showed that they had potential for autoignition below a temperature of about 50 degrees Celcius (122 Fahrenheit). Since there were no other obvious candidates for ignition sources in the area where the fire broke out, the BSU suspects that this cargo was the likely source of the fire. The intense heat generated by burning pyrochar within the container could have ignited an adjacent boxload of polypropylene bags, allowing the fire to spread. Flammable goods with the potential for self ignition typically require testing and certifications for shipping, and the BSU's investigators could not rule out the possibility that the shipper misdeclared the cargo in order to avoid compliance requirements. BSU also noted several difficulties that the crew encountered during firefighting. First, the CO2 flooding system for Hold 1 did not fully discharge due to a malfunction of its time delay system. This did not affect the course of the fire, but under different circumstances it could have created problems. Second, the crew reported that firefighting and cooling underneath containers on deck was difficult due to the transverse bars welded between the container pads, which made it hard to spray water below containers in the middle of the stack; this is a structural design feature, but it created challenges for firefighting purposes. Third, accumulated water from firefighting efforts disabled the electrical bilge well valve controls in Hold 2, making it impossible to dewater the compartment until adequate portable bilge pump capacity was deployed. Bilge pumping for Hold 1 failed as well, potentially due to debris and clogging. By January 11, the water in Hold 2 was 40 feet deep and the Yantian Express was trimmed by the head by about four feet. Full report: https://www.bsu-bund.de/SharedDocs/pdf/DE/Unfallberichte/2020/Untersuchungsbericht_15_19.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=1

Discharge will take 12 days

The discharge of undamaged containers from the "Yantian Express" has started on May 21 in the Port of Halifax, Nova Scotia and was expected to take at least 12 days, according to Ocean Network Express (ONE), and alliance partner of owner Hapag-Lloyd. Over 3,200 containers have to be discharged from the vessel, and while the whole process will take around 85 hours, at times the "Yantian Express" will have to shift the berth to make way for other vessels that regularly call the port as a result the actual discharge of boxes is expected to 12 days or more. The containers will be separated into those where general average and salvage security has been paid, for onward delivery, and those where security has not been paid, which will not be delivered. The terminal cannot dig out specific containers once stacked ashore. Thus, secured containers will be moved to the rail or transhipment vessel for delivery in the most efficient and expedient manner in order to speed up the overall handling. Following the discharge operations, the "Yantian Express" will reload empty containers for stability purposes for its voyage to Asia for permanent repairs.

Container ship in Halifax more than four months late

The "Yantian Express" finally arrived in Halifax on May 20. The tugs "Atlantic Bear" (IMO: 9451147), and"Atlantic Fir" (IMO: 9324916) were towing the ship on the last leg to the Fairview Cove Container termnal in the port on May 21 at noon. Upon the arrival on May 20 two other ships were occupying the berths at Fairview Cove and they had priority, so the "Yantian Express" was anchored in the Bedford Basin awaiting its turn. The ship was carrying no containers in the forward holds where the fire took place, and thus was trimmed down slightly by the stern. Containers originally destined for Halifax will be unloaded here, but it is unclear how the other containers will be dealt with. 260 containers were destroyed by the fire on Jan 4, 460 other containers were inspected for probable damage. Some refrigerated containers lost power in the fire, spoiling the contents. The cargo that was still good was put back on the ship and it sailed up to Halifax. The cargo that can continue on will just be put on to the next ship. The ship will be repaired in China. Report with photos: http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2019/05/yantian-exress-arrives.html