Explosion on bulk carrier W Sapphire near Baltimore port

 Image credit - https://www.baltimoresun.com

Incidence – Recently on 18th Aug evening around 6 :30 pm there was an explosion at vessel W Sapphire which was departing from Baltimore port, the vessel was carrying coal,a high risk during this situation, but due to quick action by the port team and US coast Guard the situation was taken under control. There were no injuries reported.

Present status – The fire has been extinguished.

Below is the detail of the vessel

•        Name – W Sapphire

•        Type – Bulk Carrier

•        Length – 229 meters and width 32.6 meters

•        Flag – Liberia

•        IMO No – 9605645

•        Routing - The vessel was moving from Baltimore port, USA to Port Louis, Mauritius.

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How the fire was contained –

The US coast guard responded quickly with fire extinguishers, parallelly declaring 2000 Feet nearby area as no sailing zone. Also, the fire was contained by closing the ship hatch.

After the fire was extinguished, the ship was taken to a nearby bay for further safety checks, and presently the ship is waiting the approval from coast guards on safety to further resume its journey to Port Louis.

Impact – One hatch blew off the ship due to explosion, later a survey vessel was sent by US Army corps Engineers to track the hatch under water. Vessel was carrying 23 crew members and 2 pilots and all are safe.

The incident took place near the same location where a bridge collapsed due to control system failure of a Container ship “Dali” in March 2024.