02:24
Fire rages on Singaporean container ship for 7th day off the coast of Sri Lanka
Burnt out Singaporean ship ‘going down’ off Sri Lanka after 13-day fire that triggered ‘worst ever’ marine ecological disaster
- The near two-week inferno prompted a mammoth clean-up operation as huge volumes of microplastic granules inundated the Sri Lankan coastline
- Officials now fear the destroyed MV X-Press Pearl will sink with several hundred tonnes of oil still in its fuel tanks
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The MV X-Press Pearl, carrying hundreds of tonnes of chemicals and plastics, burned for 13 days within sight of the island’s coast before firefighters finally managed to extinguish the blaze on Tuesday.
As tugs on Wednesday began trying to tow the ship further out to sea, navy spokesman Indika de Silva said it was slowly sinking.
“The stern of the ship is under water, the water level is above the deck,” de Silva said. “The ship is going down.”
Some oil was already visible near the beaches of Negombo, about 40km from Colombo, an eyewitness said, although it was not clear if it was from the stricken ship.
De Silva said the navy helped Dutch salvage firm SMIT to board the vessel and establish a tow connection after several attempts overnight failed due to bad weather.
“The ship will be towed as further away from the coast as possible before it goes down completely,” he added.
Fisheries minister Kanchana Wijesekera tweeted that the salvage company involved in the operation “has indicated that the vessel is sinking at the current location”.
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An official involved in the mitigation efforts said earlier that local experts feared the vessel was unstable.
“The firefighting efforts also saw a lot of water sprayed onto the decks. Much of that water has settled in the stern,” the official said.
Officials had planned to pump contaminated water from the ship onto barges but the operation has been abandoned.
03:15
Microplastics and debris from burning ship washes onto Sri Lankan coast
The navy said an Indian coastguard vessel in the area had the equipment to deal with an oil slick if necessary.
The inundation of microplastic granules from the ship’s containers has already forced a fishing ban and prompted concern for wildlife and the environment.
Officials said they believed the blaze was triggered by a nitric acid leak and had destroyed most of the nearly 1,500 containers on board.
Marine Environment Protection Authority chief Dharshani Lahandapura said the ecological damage is still being assessed, but he believed it was the “worst ever in my lifetime”.
Sri Lanka fears massive oil spill as Singaporean ship burns for 7th day
Sri Lanka on Monday launched a criminal investigation into the fire and marine pollution.
The third officer, an Indian national, was also questioned at length, he said, adding that a court on Tuesday had ordered the passports of all three be impounded pending further investigations.
The ship was heading to Colombo from Gujarat, India when the blaze started, having previously visited Qatar and Dubai where the containers of nitric acid had been loaded.
