X-press Godavari, the 155-meter long vessel carrying 15 crew members including four Indians and 506 containers caught fire. Indian Coast Guard ships and aircraft have been deployed for the firefighting mission on September 28.
Indian Coast Guard ship ‘Amogh’ and aircraft ‘Dornier’ have initiated the firefighting process as ICGS Varad and Amrit Kaur are advancing towards the area for further assistance.
Kolkata Port Chairman Vinit Kumar said “A container is smoldering on vessel Express Godavari,”
The ship caught on fire as it was anchored at the Sandheads off the West Bengal coast. The Sandheads in the Bay of Bengal is almost 130 km from Haldia, it is a stretch of open sea where vessels are anchored before being allowed to dock at the port.
Sustained #FireFighting efforts by 04 @IndiaCoastGuard ships & 01 Dornier Aircraft ensured fire completely doused on X-Press Godavari. #ICG Ships escorted Fire doused ship X-Press Godavari to #Kolkata. @DefenceMinIndia @shipmin_india @MEAIndia pic.twitter.com/JYyNNjGYim
— Indian Coast Guard (@IndiaCoastGuard) September 29, 2020
Officials said that a container is slowly burning on vessel X-Press Godavari and Coast Guard has been moved for immediate assistance.
@IndiaCoastGuard‘s #Amogh fighting fire as well as undertaking boundary cooling on the ship under fire. https://t.co/Y8VRAP6IIT pic.twitter.com/8lO9cCNlUY
— Ashutosh Bhatia (@AshutoshGhazal) September 28, 2020
Reference: republicworld.com