Barely six months into the year and 2022 looks as if it could be a record year for ocean-side incidents involving dangerous goods.
In the latest accident, 13 people died at the Port of Aqaba in Jordan when plumes of toxic chlorine fumes leaked from a container that had been dropped on a ship’s deck.
Haj Hassan, deputy chief of the Aqaba Region Ports Authority, said the accident had happened when a cable snapped, causing the container carrying 25 tonnes of chlorine to plunge on to the vessel.
Earlier reports stated that, apart from the fatalities, 251 people had been injured, presumably because of inhaling toxic fumes.
Residents in the immediate vicinity of the port were asked to either vacate the area or stay indoors with all windows and doors shut.
The incident comes three weeks after a container at an inland depot serving the Port of Chittagong caught fire, causing other containers, also carrying dangerous cargo, to ignite in blaze that ripped through the facility, killing 49.
In the aftermath of the chemical inferno at the Situkunda depot some 40 kilometres from the port, a further 609 drums also carrying hydrogen peroxide were identified at the depot.
In March a roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) vessel, Felicity Ace, also caught fire during an east-west voyage across the Atlantic.
It was sailing in the vicinity of the Azores island of Faial when acrid smoke was seen billowing from its hull.
Immediate rescue efforts by Portuguese authorities succeeded in evacuating all crew members from the ro-ro, with fire-fighting vessels from as far afield as Rotterdam rushing to the scene in an attempt to save the vessel and its cargo of about 400 vehicles.
Forensic experts surmised that the thick white smoke coming off the Felicity Ace, had resulted from electronic vehicle batteries catching fire.
Days later the smouldering vessel finally sunk.
