An onboard fire in the engine room of a container vessel alongside ‘South Quay Berth’ at the Durban Container Terminal (DCT) brought operations to a halt overnight while the city’s fire and emergency services extinguished the fire.
It is understood that the fire on the MSC Monica broke out at about 8pm while the vessel was being worked at Pier 2.
The Port of Durban’s Fire and Emergency Services, Marine Services and eThekwini’s Municipality’s Fire Services rushed to the scene and managed to contain the blaze before putting it out.
Earlier industry notification cautioned that operations at berth 108, one of four berths at Pier 2, would be affected by the fire, but Earle Peters, chief executive of Durban Terminals at state-owned logistics utility, Transnet, said operations had resumed at 8:30 this morning (21 August).
“No injuries were sustained as a result of the fire and we’re currently working at reducing the backlog created as a result of the fire.”
He said the Monica was still at berth and being worked.
“We are closely monitoring the situation,” he said.
