JOIN USFire breaks out on ship off Mangaluru coast
A major fire broke out at a research vessel of Shipping Corporation of India off the New Mangalore coast along Karnataka.
The fire has now been extinguished by the Indian Coast Guard. There were no casualties, however, there was damage to the ship.
At about 2200 hrs on Friday evening, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Mumbai received information from SCI, regarding fire onboard ocean research vessel Sagar Sampada which was operating off New Mangalore coast.
The vessel had onboard, 30 crew members and 16 scientists, including three women. The fire was in the accommodation area of the research vessel and the crew were not able to control the spread of fire.
The Coast Guard Regional Headquarters (West) at Mumbai, immediately diverted ICGS Vikram and ICGS Sujay to render necessary assistance to the vessel on fire.
The ICG ships arrived at vessel’s position just past midnight and deployed joint fire fighting team to contain the fire. Additionally, External Fire Fighting system fitted on ICG ships were also used to control the spread of fire.
The joint fire Fighting team embarked ORV Sagar Sampada and assessed the situation. "It was found that eight compartments in the accommodation area were on fire," ICG officials said in Mumbai.
Extensive fire fighting operations were undertaken over a period of eight hours to contain the fire.
As a result of this rigorous fire fighting operation, the fire was brought under control around 0800 hrs on Saturday morning.
In order to augment de-flooding of accumulated water inside the vessel (due to fire fighting), necessary additional submersible pumps were provided by the CG ships.
On completion, Sagar Sampada proceeded towards New Mangalore harbour safely.