W-Kampala

04 September 2013 – Maersk Press Release: The fire-fighting teams aboard the Maersk Kampala have succeeded in putting out the fire aboard the Maersk Kampala. Some smoke continues to come from some of the containers that had fire but will stop eventually with continued spraying by the tugs and flooding by the fire-fighting teams. Operational planning is now the priority, including port selection, contingency planning for cargo as well as the vessel’s eventual return to service.

In the morning of Sep 2 the fire on board the "Maersk Kampala" could be brought under control so far that only six containers were still alight. Firefighters were in the process of cutting a way into the containers to extinguish the fire within. Bad weather in the area south of Suez had prevented an affective control of the fire until Aug 31 at noon. The vessels with fire fighting equipment could not close in to the ship because of the weather. At the same time a technical breakdown on a tug kept fire-fighting experts from reaching the ship. The result was that the fire - which originally occurred in a container at the bottom of a stack - spread to several containers in the ship's two front container rows. During Aug 31 and Sep 1 the weather improved and ships with water cannons were ale to fight the fire in the front two rows of containers and prevent the fire from spreading further. Report with photo: http://gcaptain.com/maersk-kampala-fire-is-out/

According to Egyptian military sources, the fire aboard the "Maersk Kampala" has evolved into a blaze that included more than 1,000 tons of ship container cargo, consisting of about 4,000 containers. Many of the ship's containers were reported damaged or destroyed. Maersk Line has not published anything about developments since Aug 30 afternoon. Over a longer period there has been no AIS signal from the ship.