Fire on waters: on India and maritime accidents
The Indian coast needs to be protected against three types of major peacetime maritime accidents involving merchant ships: sinking of merchant ships, causing the loss of cargo, disruption of maritime traffic, and environmental damage; fire onboard merchant vessels that can seriously threaten not just the environment but also life and property on the coast; and oil spills. The recent fire onboard MV Wan Hai 503, that started with explosions when the ship was some 44 nautical miles off the Azhikkal coast in Kannur, Kerala, on June 9, has been successfully controlled now. Photographs of the ship showed a cocktail of smoke of brown, white, grey and black colours billowing out, indicating that many substances were burning. The cargo manifest showed that more than 140 of the 1,754 containers had various types of hazardous cargo. Coast Guard officials report that the raging Wan Hai had started drifting dangerously towards the coast even as firefighting was on and the sea remained rough under monsoon conditions. A tow rope was passed onto the ship but it snapped. An Indian Navy helicopter flew in to airdrop a salvage team and pass a wire rope that was made of steel, which was then used to tow the ship 45 nautical miles away from the coast where the depth is nearly one kilometre. The owner of the vessel pitched in by commandeering tugs through their agents. Wan Hai does not pose an immediate danger to the Indian coast now. Smoke is still seen from the ship and there are hot spots, but it is now up to the ship owner to salvage the vessel after completely putting out the fire.
Most of the patrol vessels, the workhorse of the Coast Guard, are now fitted with firefighting equipment since firefighting is a key mandate of the agency. While hazardous cargo on containers are indeed a major fire hazard, a more severe fire hazard is oil. Gas-carrying merchant ships are perhaps the greatest fire and explosion hazards. Nightmare scenarios that can bring the world to its knees involve gas carrier accidents at choke points such as the Suez Canal or the Strait of Malacca off Singapore. In 2020, the Indian Coast Guard and Navy successfully put out a massive fire that broke out off Colombo on the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC), New Diamond, chartered by the Indian Oil Corporation. The VLCC was carrying 2,70,000 tonnes of crude oil and bound for Paradip in Odisha. That these ships were structurally intact despite week-long infernos is a testament as much to the maritime firefighting capabilities of India as the advanced design, materials and construction of the ships. Quick salvage of sunk ships and fighting oil spills, which require quick, extensive and close multi-agency coordination, are the other areas where India needs to build and demonstrate more expertise.
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