Blaze Contained on MSC Flaminia

Firefighting from the Fairmount Expedition

The fire onboard the MSC Flaminia that has been burning for over a week has been contained, according to salvage experts from SMIT Salvage. The announcement comes seemingly ahead of schedule as it was first estimated that the firefighting operations “could take some weeks”.

The latest press statement from Reederei NSB, which is the Germany-based ship management company for the MSC Flaminia, said that the fire onboard MSC Flaminia has been under control since Monday afternoon and that crews from tugboat Anglian Sovereign are standing by and constantly monitoring temperatures onboard the vessel via a laser thermometer. The tug Carlo Magno is also still on scene and standing by.

Salvors, however, have been forced off the vessel due to thick fog in the area, but more targeted firefighting operations will resume once conditions allow. It won’t be until each container is checked individually that the vessel will be granted access to port.

As gCaptain reported yesterday, the MSC Flaminia has continued on its journey under tow by Fairmount Expedition, to a so far undisclosed (or undecided) port in Europe. As of the latest update, the MSC Flaminia and three tugs were approximately 320 nautical miles off the coast of the UK at 5 knots.

The vessel is still listing by approximately 10 degrees.