The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and Navy ships continue their efforts to control a fire onboard a container ship MV Daniella off the Colombo coast after a request for assistance was made by Sri Lanka on Tuesday night.
As on Wednesday morning, ICG’s Shoor had extinguished fire on the port side (or left side) of the vessel, while efforts were on to contain fire on the starboard side of the vessel using external firefighting system —water cannons mixed with foam to smother the fire, the Coast Guard said in a statement.
The statement added that the vessel was carrying dangerous cargo, and hence utmost caution was being exercised in firefighting to ensure safety of the crew and the vessel. MV Daniella is presently anchored 11 nm off Colombo.
“At about 20:30 hrs on Tuesday, information was received from High Commission of India, Colombo regarding a request received from the Srilankan Navy to render assistance to extinguish fire onboard MV Daniella which was reported to have broken on April 04 at about 10:55 hrs in position 120 Nautical Miles west of Colombo while on transit from Singapore to Suez,” the statement said.
Following this, ICGS’ Shoor, which was on an overseas deployment at Colombo, was pressed into service within two hours after the request was received.
The Navy too has pressed in ships INS Gharial and INS Darshak to provide assistance.
