Fire extinguished on ro/ro ship in North Atlantic

More than half the crew of a K Line roll-on/roll-off ship that caught fire in the mid-Atlantic have been taken off the ship while a skeleton crew remains aboard the disabled ship and awaits a tugboat that has been dispatched from Halifax and is expected to arrive by Sunday.

The ship Sea Venus had last loaded cargo in Rhode Island and was in route to Belgium when it reported an engine room fire at around 7:30 a.m. Thursday, said Lorraine Brooks, from the U.S. Coast Guard, which coordinated response to the fire that occurred about 1,200 miles east of Cape Cod.

Initially the crew reported that the engine room fire had been extinguished with the ship's automatic carbon dioxide systems, but in a subsequent distress call, the ship said the fire had re-flashed, the CO2 system had been depleted, and the crew was fighting the blaze with water and hand-held extinguishers. The Coast Guard said the fire was put out by Thursday evening.

Canadian navy frigate HMCS Toronto took seamen off the vessel and provided assistance. Fourteen crewmembers have been transferred to another K Line ship, Olympian Highway, while nine crewmembers remain on board the ship to await the tug Atlantic Oak. Also responding to the emergency was the merchant vessel, Challenge Plus. 

Source: American Shipper