Explosion and fire on MSC container ship at Colombo Port

According to local reports there was an explosion followed by fire below deck of the MSC Capetown III at 00:30 hrs on 11 August.

The SLPA said the fire broke out while the vessel was docked at Jaya Container Terminal berth IV in the Port of Colombo, and “All operations staff and crews were safely evacuated from the ship".

On Monday the port authority said the fire had been fully extinguished.

Some 60 containers above deck in the are where the explosion occurred had already been unloaded from the vessel, including one which contained dangerous cargo.

Chairman of the SLPA Keith D. Bernard said that an investigation into the incident was to be launched with a comprehensive report prepared and that insurers would also hold their own enquiries.

The Portuguese, flagged-2006 built, MSC Capetown III berthed in Colombo on Sunday afternoon having sailed from Singapore, and is managed by MSC Shipmanagement in Cyprus. The vessel was scheduled to unload 995 containers and load a further 885 boxes at Colombo Port.

It was the second explosion and fire onboard a container ship in docked in port in the space of three days. On 9 August there was a massive explosion and fire from containers stowed on board the Yang Ming vessel YM Mobility while it was berthed in the Chinese port of Ningbo-Zhoushan.

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