Fire aboard the Flaminia under control

  • David Slade
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  • Posted: Tuesday, July 24, 2012 2:55 p.m.
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(Photo provided by NSB Niederelbe)The considerable damage to the container ship MSC Flaminia, which caught fire in the mid-Atlantic July 14, is clear in a photograph taken Friday morning from a salvage tugboat fighting the blaze. Ship’s owner Reederei NSB, of Germany, said cargo holds 4, 5 and 6 were “demolished.”

The German company that owns the container ship MSC Flaminia, which caught fire in the mid-Atlantic six days after departing the Port of Charleston, said today that the fire has been brought under control.

The Flaminia was abandoned by its crew July 14 after a fire broke out, followed by an explosion. One crewman was killed, and another remains unaccounted for, and the rest were rescued from lifeboats by an oil tanker and taken to England.

The fire raged for four days, hundreds of miles from the nearest port, before the first firefighting salvage tugboat arrived on the scene. Today the ship’s owner, Reederei NSB, said the fire was brought under control Monday afternoon, 10 days after it started.

A trio of salvage tugs are cooling the 984-foot ship and towing it toward England. The cause of the fire and several explosions have not been determined.

Read more in Wednesday’s editions of The Post and Courier.

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