Any active fires on board the Zim Kingston container ship anchored off Victoria have been extinguished, federal officials and the company managing the vessel said Friday.
Canadian Coast Guard spokeswoman Michelle Imbeau said firefighting crews are continuing to use infrared cameras to monitor hot spots. The fire has been smouldering for a week in containers onboard the Zim Kingston. It broke out after the ship lost 109 of its 2,000 containers on Oct. 22 in bad weather off the west coast of the Island while en route to Vancouver from South Korea.
Onboard, two containers of hazardous materials used in the mining sector have burned, Imbeau said. Two other containers carrying the same materials were among those that fell from the ship and have not been recovered.
Danaos Shipping Co., the Greece-based company managing the vessel, did not provide any details about the fire in a statement Friday, saying only that it had been extinguished.
Danaos has hired Resolve Marine, a global firm that includes salvage operations and has a base in Alaska, to help deal with the incident.
So far, four of the lost containers have been found at the northern end of Vancouver Island — three are floating and one is perched on rocks next to the ocean. Efforts to find the additional containers continue, Imbeau said.
Danaos said in its statement that work to remove containers and debris from shores will begin immediately. It said Danaos has been working closely with local authorities and is “committed to following all actions necessary to mitigate the consequences of the incident.”
Imbeau said Pacificus Biological Services of Campbell River has been contracted by Danaos for shore cleanup and Amix Group of New Westminster has been contracted for waterside recovery of containers. Pacificus specializes in natural resource management along B.C.’s coast, while Amix Group includes a marine salvage division.
More information is expected early next week about container salvage onboard the ship, Imbeau said. “A plan is in the works, but nothing has been finalized.”
A Port Hardy resident reported that a wide variety of debris that may have come from one of the containers had washed up on a beach on northwest Vancouver Island, including refrigerators, boots, styrofoam and plastic-wrapped toys.
Canadian officials say some of the containers would likely have sunk, since they are not watertight.
In an earlier statement, Danaos said the Zim Kingston was in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Oct. 22 “awaiting to proceed to the port of Vancouver when extreme weather caused an excessive listing of the vessel,” resulting in the containers going overboard.
Matti Polychronis, Port of Vancouver spokesperson, said the vessel did not request an anchorage from the port authority.
On the morning of Oct. 22, there were 10 anchorages in the Port of Vancouver and 24 anchorages in the Southern Gulf Islands available, she said. “If the request had been made, the port authority would have assigned an anchorage for this vessel.”
Transport Canada spokesperson Sau Sau Liu said a ship is generally free to anchor temporarily and for a reasonable period of time in any location deemed appropriate.
Such decisions are the responsibility of the vessel masters, in conjunction with the port authorities and others — for example, marine pilots — and are based on a range of factors, including the quality of anchor-holding ground and shelter from high winds, Liu said.
In Canada, the securing of containers on board vessels is regulated by the Cargo, Fumigation and Tackle Regulations under the Canada Shipping Act. Under those regulations, containers have to be loaded, stowed and secured in accordance with cargo-securing rules of the country whose flag the ship sails under, Liu said. In this case, the Zim Kingston is sailing under the flag of Malta.
Transport Canada may conduct an investigation into what caused the containers to go overboard and why some of those remaining on the ship caught fire, said a statement from the incident command group, which includes all levels of government.
cjwilson@timescolonist.com
