News / Two crew killed in engine room blaze as Cosco box ship bunkers at Houston

Photo: VesselFinder

An engine room fire on the Danaos-owned M/V Stride claimed the lives of two seafarers and left a third in critical condition during a ship-to-ship bunkering operation at the US port of Houston yesterday.

The 2,174 teu vessel, a 27-year-old Panama-flagged containership formerly known as Hyundai Stride, was bunkering at Houston’s Barbours Cut terminal, with a bunker barge moored alongside. The fire broke out in the engine room just before 4am local time.

Two crewmen perished, while a third was taken to hospital by helicopter, reportedly in critical condition. The fire has been extinguished, authorities said, with no firefighters injured.

“Harris County extends our deepest to the deceased, the injured and their families,” said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.

The vessel is chartered to Cosco and, according to the eeSea liner database, is deployed on the GCX intra-Americas service the Chinese carrier operates jointly with CMA CGM.

Federal authorities have taken over investigating the cause of the fire, led by the US Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board.

With the cause yet to be determined, the fact that the fire appears to have taken place while the vessel was bunkering will give pause for thought for some, after Houston’s involvement in successive major bunkering incidents and scandals, mainly over fuel quality.

In 2018, it was discovered that various compounds used in the manufacture of glue were blended into the bunker supply, flocculating, blocking pipes and causing loss-of-propulsion incidents.