The New Year is on course to record the worst week for the maritime industry so far this century after a general cargo vessel caught fire while voyaging through the Teluk Lamong waterway between Surabaya and Madura Island in Indonesia.
The onboard blaze spread quickly to the Fortuner’s accommodation block, but the crew was safely airlifted from the 33-year-old vessel.
The vessel was waiting at anchorage outside the Port of Gresik at the time of the blaze, which was doused just before midnight.
The incident brings to four the number of at-sea incidents – two of them extremely serious – reported so far this year.
On Monday, January 9, two vessels ran aground in Italy and Egypt – one a container vessel that got stuck on a breakwater at the Port of Gioia Tauro, and another that had to be dislodged off the west bank of the Suez Canal’s northern channel (*).
Then, on Wednesday, an explosion in the hull of an empty tanker ripped the carrier in two in its amidships area off the coast of Rizhao in China’s Yellow Sea.
Footage seen of the Hong Pu 6 in the latter incident appears to confirm that the vessel will be written off, as is the case apparently with the Fortuner, which it seems has been internally gutted beyond repair.
* Read this for more context: https://tinyurl.com/5a6fucn3
