[U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Jessica Maldonado Gonzalez]
In a fit submitted in the Duval County, Florida, Circuit Court on September 1 by law office Pajcic & & Pajcic, 10 Jacksonvile Fire and alsoRescue workers are looking for problems for injuries, consisting of burns, experienced when they replied to the blaze that burst out June 4 on the auto service provider Hoegh Xiamen ( see earlier tale).
All were harmed in a surge aboard the blazing ship, which was anchored at the Port of Jacksonville’s Blount Island incurable.
“It was a recipe for disaster,” stated lawyer Curry Pajcic in explaining the disorderly scene encountering very first -responders replying to the blaze.
Named as accuseds in the lawsuit are: Hoegh Autoliners Shipping AS; Hoegh Autoliners Management AS; Hoegh Autoliners, Inc.; Horizon Terminal Services, llc; Grimaldi Deepsea S.P.A., and also SSA Marine, Inc.
According to the law office, at the time the fire burst out, the ship was packed with gas and also used/wrecked vehicles, and also prepared to obtain underway. However, the ship’s team had actually switched off the Fire Alarm System, permitting a fire to begin, shed, and also spread unmitigated in the freight decks.
When rescue got here, they experienced a vessel belching smoke, a team incapable to talk English– and also incapable to connect where the fire was or just how to reach it. That compelled the rescuers to go thoughtlessly onto the 600 foot burning vessel to look for the place of the blaze as temperature levels got to greater than 1,000 levels Fahrenheit.
“Fire is one of, if not the, most dangerous events on any ship and RO/RO ships have a recognized propensity to catch fire — especially when transporting motor vehicles, and particularly wrecked motor vehicles, which are hazardous cargo, prone to catching fire given the combination of gasoline and automotive batteries which create sparks and ignite,” states the grievance submitted in case.
The grievance additionally insists that Grimaldi Group, which was running the Hoegh Xiamen under a time charter with Hoegh Shipping and also providing the police officers and also team, had actually experienced fires on its various other RO/RO vehicle service provider ships and also had actually blogged about the threats of these returning and also unsafe vehicle fires on ships– consisting of the dangers offered by auto batteries.
The ship was not furnished with a water automatic sprinkler and also there were no interior hose pipe links in the stairwell to aid firemans in battling the blaze, together with a lengthy listing of various other flaws and also dangers, stated Pajcic & & Pajcic in a news release. The grievance submitted in case additionally points out the team’s failing to effectively make use of the CARBON DIOXIDE system so regarding snuff out the blaze prior to it was allowed to spread out;
“As the firefighters were in a staging area in the stairwell to attack the fire, there was an explosion from within the ship, said the law firm. ‘The explosion roared down the stairwell, blasting the Firemen with continuous severe heat while they were trapped in the stairwell of the burning ship.”
The warmth from the surge and also the power of the blast, seriously melted the faces, hands, and also bodies of the firemans, blew up numerous firemans out of the fifth deck entrance and also over vehicles, tossing others down trips of staircases, breaking bones, tearing flesh, and also creating serious physical and also psychological injury as the very first -responders thought they were mosting likely to be caught inside the ship and also melted to fatality, states the company.
Firefighter Shawn O’Shell, a 17-year fireman professional, defined the scene on the ship as an ordeal. “I heard a God-awful growl, and then felt the ship shaking, and then the explosion … it was like a blast furnace … being trapped behind the engine of an F-16 blasting into you, extreme heat that keeps going, and going, and going, and you have nowhere to go. I was trapped, I thought, ‘I’m going to die on this ship’ … my thoughts flashed to my wife, daughter and son, and what they would do….”
The Hoegh Xiamen remained to smolder and also shed for the following 8 days. Unable to return to the ship after the surge, JFRD constantly splashed water outside of the ship to preserve its stability and also avoid an ecological calamity while the within the ship and also its flammable freight remained to shed.
According to the claim, the accuseds were irresponsible in falling short to preserve and also furnish the ship in a fairly risk-free problem, in addition to lots of various other failings that jeopardized the lives of the rescue group.
Curry Pajcic defined his customers as real American heroes. “They ran into the storm, a storm created by an irresponsible company, an ill-equipped crew, and dangerous cargo, that was a recipe for disaster … especially when the ship’s crew made the willful, intentional decision to turn off the alarm system at a time and place when they knew they had dangerous combustible cargo. The JFRD averted a major disaster to the St. Johns River and Blount Island, but the ten firemen will forever live with the physical and emotional scars caused by the Defendants’ negligence.”
The Hoegh Xiamen was ultimately proclaimed a positive failure and also on August 30 was pulled out of Jacksonville, probably gone to demolition.
