News / Crew member dies as Maersk Frankfurt catches fire on maiden voyage

Image from Indian Coastguard

An electrical fire at the weekend on the maiden voyage of Maersk Frankfurt, in the Arabian Sea some 190km off Goa, has claimed the life of a Filipino crewmember.

The 5,500 teu vessel was said to be ‘stable’ this morning, with four Indian coastguard vessels – Sachet, Sujeet, Samrat and Varaha – fighting the fire.

On charter to Maersk, the vessel was delivered from Japan’s Imabari Shipbuilding to its Japanese owner, Tokei Kaiun, in May and was on its maiden voyage under the management of Bernhard Schulte.

Aerial footage from Saturday showed a vessel using a water jet to cool down smouldering containers, and later scenes include coastguard personnel dropping bags of dry chemicals onto the deck from a helicopter.

“The fire-fighting operation is still on… we are in control of the fire, but because of the containers and based on past experience, it takes three to four days before it is fully doused,” Manoj Bhatia, deputy inspector general of the Indian Coast Guard, Goa, told The Times of India this morning.

“And even after dousing, the area remains heated. We have also requested the state agencies to prepare for any exigencies that may take place because of oil pollution, in case things deteriorate further.”

The fire started after an explosion, which an early Reuters report indicated was caused by an electrical short-circuit. The vessel was en route to Colombo, Sri Lanka, at the time.

According to local reports, the vessel may have some dangerous cargo aboard, although the fire is said to be affecting boxes low down in the container stack, where IMDG shipments are unlikely to be located. 

One Filipino crewmember is reported to have died in the fire, with the remaining two Ukrainians, a Russian and 17 Filipino nationals said to be unhurt.

“The ship’s operator reported a body in the lashing bridge, but it is impossible to reach it because of the flames,” the Panama Maritime Authority said yesterday. “The Indian authorities are focusing their efforts to fight the fire and guarantee the safety of the ship and the crew.”

You can see a video of the Indian coastguard putting out the fire, here.