Crew fighting fire on "Yantian Express"
The Hamburg-headquartered carrier Hapag Lloyd has announced that an incident occurred the "Yantian Express". On 3 January, a fire broke out in one container on the deck of the vessel and spread to additional containers. While the crew of eight officers and 15 seafarers remained unharmed, efforts to extinguish the fire had to be suspended due to a significant deterioration in weather conditions.
The 7,510 teu, 320 m long vessel, which was built in 2002, sails under German flag. It is deployed in the East Coast loop 5 (EC5) service and was on its way from Colombo to Halifax via the Suez Canal.
At present, the ship is approximately 650 nautical miles off the coast of Canada. On 4 January, the shipping group said that it is still too early to make a precise estimate of damage to the vessel and its cargo. (kd)