Canada: Sixteen people were evacuated from a container ship that caught fire

After a severe fire broke in a cargo container ship on Saturday, sixteen people were rescued off the coast of Canada, the officials of the Canadian Coast Guard informed. The Coast Guard stated that a fire started in ten containers on the MVZim Kingston ship near Victoria, British Columbia.

Crews were dispatched to the scene to save the ship members and to put out the fire. A 2-nautical-mile emergency zone was established around the ship, and rescue attempts continued until Sunday. 

The Canadian administration had issued a navigational alert overnight, stating that the freight vessel was on fire and emitting poisonous fumes into the air. Two containers have fallen in the water and are drifting near the ship. Throughout the entire night, a Seaspan Raven tug boat was used to cool down the MV Zim Kingston ship's exterior by showering cold water into it. Furthermore, the coast guard has faced difficulty while putting the fire as they could not apply direct water into it because the nature of the chemicals onboard was unknown to them. 

Cargo ship carrying mining chemicals on fire, no casualties  

According to The Associated Press, two of the flaming containers contained potassium amylxanthate, which is considered to be a dangerous substance. Photos posted on Twitter showed smoke pouring from a toppled row of stacked containers. 

As per the Canadian Coast Guard, there has been no danger to anyone onshore. Further, Danaos Shipping Co, the company that operates the ship revealed that no casualties were recorded. The cargo ship was approaching in its way towards Vancouver. The vessel was transporting over 52,000kg of chemicals, according to the coast guard, which was found in two of the containers that were on fire, BBC reported. 

The fire which started on the Zim Kingston ship has burnt the impacted containers down to their core, as stated by the federal incident commander of the Canadian Coast Guard at a press conference on Sunday. Quoting commander JJ Brickett, the CBC website reported, “We've just had a Coast Guard helicopter overtop and the majority of the fire is almost out. What we still see is smouldering, but we can't see any scorching or charring out of the adjacent containers." 

Furthermore, AP reported that 40 containers fell into the water from a cargo ship on Friday amid turbulent waves, but a forecast of the probable storm for Sunday made the recovery of the containers impossible. 

(Image: Twitter/ @CoastGuardCAN)