52
PUT THAT IN YOUR PIPE CONTAINERS • CHARCOAL IS KNOWN TO HAVE CAUSED A NUMBER OF RECENT FIRES ABOARD CONTAINERSHIPS AND SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN THE YANTIAN EXPRESS INCIDENT
THE DISASTROUS FIRE that broke out in containers aboard Hapag-Lloyd’s 7,236-teu vessel Yantian Express in January 2019 was most likely caused by self-ignition in a cargo of coconut charcoal that had been misdeclared as coconut pellets, according to an in-depth report by the German Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation (Bundesstelle für Seeunfalluntersuchung – BSU). It says that this was the only cargo in the vicinity of the seat of the fire that had the potential to self-ignite, although the investigation was made difficult by the large number of other containers that had been affected by the fire, making a forensic examination of the casualty essential. Yantian Express had begun a westbound voyage in Vung Tau, Vietnam on 10 December 2018, calling at Singapore and Colombo before a long leg to Halifax, Nova Scotia, with arrival scheduled for 4 January 2019. In the early hours of 2 January, with the weather worsening, the officer on watch spotted flames well forward and advised the master, who mustered the crew. Other nearby vessels arrived on scene in case the crew needed to abandon ship, until salvage tugs began to arrive the next day. The crew continued to fight the fire, despite the weather deteriorating further, deploying
THE SHIP’S CREW DID EVERYTHING THEY COULD TO PREVENT THE FIRE SPREADING
HCB MONTHLY | MARCH 2020
all means at their disposal, while the fire was seen spreading to other containers. In the evening of 5 January an explosion was heard, identified as coming from a container with nitrocellulose, and plans were made to abandon ship. Half the complement took up the invitation. The following day all remaining crew were evacuated, all very exhausted. On 9 January the captain and four other crew returned to the ship to help with the response. It was determined that the fire was largely under control at that point and the casualty was towed to Halifax, arriving on 13 January, where firefighting efforts continued until 26 January.
THE FINGER POINTS BSU interviewed the five crew members who returned to the ship, all but one of whom was highly experienced, and examined the voyage data recorder. BSU surveyors also examined the remains of all the containers that had been near the seat of the fire once other boxes had been unloaded. Most of the inspected containers held clothing, tyres, furniture or other goods; although most were completely burnt out, surveyors found enough evidence to confirm the descriptions on the manifest. However, one container said to be carrying coconut pellets had remnants of briquetteshaped pieces, identified as coconut charcoal, otherwise known as ‘pyrochar’. Coconut pellets are produced by grinding coconut shells and compacting the material into small sticks, to be used as fuel for furnaces. Pyrochar is produced by pyrolysis of coconut shells and has properties similar to woodbased charcoal; BSU says the cube-shaped pyrochar found in the container was most likely to be used as fuel for shisha pipes. BSU could not elicit any information from the forwarder or consignee of the cargo, which had been loaded in Vietnam. BSU estimates that the total weight of pyrochar
