Recently Ignited CCNI Arauco Returned to Owners

The 300-meter-long container vessel CCNI Arauco, which ignited on September 1 in the German port of Hamburg, was returned to its owners after the teams on site extinguished the fire and completed the follow-on operations, according to marine and offshore services company Ardent Global.

Following the incident, a salvage contract was signed to speed up the response and clean-up operations aboard the 2015-built containership, which lasted for four weeks.

The aft hold was partly flooded to extinguish the fire, subsequently contaminating the water in the hold. The operations included discharging the contaminated water, which was pumped into tankers to bring it to off-site final disposal facilities.

Additionally, the damaged containers, which were declared as dangerous waste and required special treatment, were discharged out of the vessels cargo hold.

The boxship was subsequently returned to its owners for repair works.

Earlier reports indicated that the incident could have started due to welding works which were being undertaken on the rear end of the ship, however, relevant authorities launched an investigation into the exact cause of the fire.

With a length of 300 meters and a width of over 48 meters, the boxship was docked at the Port of Hamburg’s Burchardkai container terminal, at berth 1/2, at the time.

World Maritime News Staff