U.S. Coast Guard says 11 of 23 crew members moved off burning ship

HALIFAX — The U.S. Coast Guard says 11 “non-essential” crew have been moved off of a large Halifax-bound container ship that’s been burning far off the Nova Scotia coast.

Chief Petty Officer 3rd Class Joshua Canup says the 11 have been moved to the Smit Nicobar, an offshore support tug from Belgium that arrived on the scene Friday night.

He says the remaining 12 crew remain on board the Yantian Express and no injuries have been reported.

The 320-metre container ship was travelling from Colombo, Sri Lanka, to Halifax on Thursday when a fire started inside a container on the ship’s forward deck.

The blaze then spread to several other containers, and coast guard officials in Boston received a call for help early Friday.

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Canup said earlier Saturday that poor weather continued to prevent crews from extinguishing the fire burning aboard the ship, which is located about 1,775 kilometres southeast of Halifax.

“As it stands right now, they’re just waiting for the heavy weather to subside,” Canup said.

Canup said a cargo ship from the Netherlands, the MV Happy Ranger, was on scene Friday to offer assistance, but left after the Smit Nicobar arrived.

There were no reported injuries to the eight officers and 15 seafarers aboard the ship, which was built in 2002 and is capable of carrying 7,510 standard 20-foot containers.

A spokesman for international shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, which owns the Yantian Express, said it’s still too early to assess damage to the ship or cargo, and there is no estimate for when the ship will arrive in Halifax.

“The weather and sea conditions are still difficult and further extinguishing work requires an improvement of these conditions,” Tim Seifert said in an email.

Seifert said the Smit Nicobar is equipped with fire monitors to assist with the fire extinguishing as soon as weather permits.

The Canadian Press