Does a oil spill risk spreading to the North Sea? This is what the collision fears on Monday, March 10, between an oil tanker chartered by the US army and a cargo army off the coast of Yorkshire (north of England). The shock caused a large fire and damaged the tank of the tanker. The operating company reports hydrocarbon leakage reports.
The oil crew, the STENA IMMACULATEis alive, said a spokesperson for its owner, the Swedish company Stena Bulk. He left the ship after several explosions in the boat, including a tank that contained kerosene. The operator explained that he immediately triggered the emergency plan and indicates “actively work with public agencies to contain the fire and secure the ship”.
The tanker was “temporarily chartered by the military Sealift command” (the command of military transportation), according to Jillian Morris, a spokesman for the US Navy. He left on February 27 of Agio Theodoroi, Greece, bound for Killinghome, in northern England, indicates the specialized site Vessel Finder.
THE STENA IMMACULATE was struck by the container carrier Solongwhich beat Portuguese pavilion and left Grangemouth, Scotland on Monday evening to go to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The German company Reederei Köpping, owner of Solong, Indicates on its site that the boat measures 140 m long. He is able to transport a maximum of 812 containers of 14 tonnes. According to the specialized site Lloyd’s List Intelligence, the cargo was carrying flammable gas.
Plules of smoke
Images show impressive plumes of smoke and flames rising from the place of the collision, as in this video shared by the British media The Sun. The two boats are barely noticeable.
Thirty-two injured
An “evaluation is underway” to decide “measures to combat pollution probably necessary” as a result of this collision, the British coast guard said. The Maritime Accident Investigation Branch (Maib), an organization responsible for maritime transport accidents, announced that it has sent a team on site to proceed with first observations.
The collision made at least 32 injured transported to the ground in Grimsby (northeast of England), said the director of the port of this locality, Martyn Boyers. The wounded arrived on the ground “aboard three boats” and “the ambulances line up on the platform” of the port, he said. The alert was given shortly before 11 a.m. on Monday morning, according to the British coast guard. A rescue operation was put in place in stride, notably mobilizing rescue canoes, a plane, a helicopter and nearby ships, said the same source.
The British Minister of Transport, Heidi Alexander, said she was “concerned”, thanking the emergency services involved in the aid. For its part, the Associated British Ports Society (Associated British Ports, ABP) confirmed that it was “aware of a maritime incident” occurred “outside (its) jurisdiction”. “All ship movements are currently suspended in the Humber (maritime estuary of the northeast coast of England) due to the incident,” she also said.
A possible dark tide
The Environmental NGO Greenpeace, which is “extremely concerned” by “multiple toxic risks”, said in a press release “very closely” the information on the collision. “At this stage, it is too early to assess the extent of the damage caused to the environment”. However, she judges, “in the case of a spill of hydrocarbons or a dangerous loss of cargo of the container carrier concerned, the speed of the intervention will also be crucial to limit the impact”.
Solicited, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) stressed that the emphasis was put on the anti-initiated fight and the rescue operations, adding that in due time an investigation report should be submitted to it.
Several collisions have been reported over the past ten years in the North Sea. Two years ago, two Cargos had struck off the German archipelago of Heligoland. Three people had been killed and two others had disappeared at sea. In 2015, the Flinterstara cargo cargo carrying more than 500 tonnes of petroleum products, had flowed after a collision with a tanker eight kilometers off the Belgian coast.