A large cargo ship with a fire in its hold is being kept 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) offshore of an Alaska port as a precaution while efforts are undertaken to extinguish the flames, the U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday.
There were no injuries to the 19 crew members aboard the Genius Star XI, which was carrying a load of lithium-ion batteries across the Pacific Ocean, from Vietnam to San Diego, the guard’s Alaska district said in a release.
The fire started on Christmas Day in cargo hold No. 1, a spokesperson for ship owner Wisdom Marine Group said in a statement. The crew released carbon dioxide into the hold and sealed it over concerns of an explosion.
Ship’s personnel alerted the Coast Guard early Thursday morning about the fire. The Coast Guard said it diverted the 410-foot (125-meter) cargo ship to Dutch Harbor, one of the nation’s busiest fishing ports located in Unalaska, an Aleutian Islands community about 800 miles (1,287 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage.
An expert hired by the Taipei, Taiwan-based Wisdom Marine Group “is working diligently to create contingency plans, arrange for a firefighting team, and ensure the necessary equipment is in place,’ the group said in a statement.
Yeah right. They’re frantically trying to figure out how to dump the container overboard and whether the penalties would cost less than losing the boats cargo.
Dumping it in water will not stop it from burning, and will probably make things a lot worse for the crew.
I believe that lithium ion and lithium iron phosphate fires are generally put out by lowering the temperature of the reaction to the point that it can’t self sustain. Dumping it overboard in a vast supply of frigid water actually would put it out, provided it sinks.
It’s also a really really bad idea environmentally.
serious question: is it really so bad enviromentally? There are no heavy metals in those battries, right? AFAIK we’re talking Lithium, Cobald, Manganese, Nickel and a lot of Graphite. Then there is Copper and Aluminum, Steel and some plastics. Maybe the stuff that is used as an electrolyte isn’t so good. But I don’t see how that stuff can create a enviromental catastrophy. I mean it’s not radioactive Water or a shitload of oil we’re talking about here.
