On the night of June 19th, the East China Sea Rescue Bureau of the Ministry of Transport received a distress message from the Shanghai Maritime Search and Rescue Center: A Panamanian-flagged container ship named “Zhonggu Taishan” caught fire in its engine room, approximately 15 nautical miles east of the Chongming Island Lighthouse in the Yangtze River Estuary.
After the fire broke out, the engine room was sealed off. The vessel has a total of 22 Chinese crew members on board. The East China Sea Rescue Bureau of the Ministry of Transport immediately initiated the emergency response plan and instructed the vessel “Donghaijiu 101″ to proceed at full speed to the scene. The Shanghai Rescue Base (Emergency Rescue Team) is prepared for deployment.
At 23:59 on June 19th, the vessel “Donghaijiu 101″ arrived at the incident area and commenced on-site disposal operations.
At 1:18 am on the 20th, the rescue crew of “Donghaijiu 101″ successfully rescued 14 distressed crew members in two batches using rescue boats. The remaining 8 crew members stayed on board to ensure the stability of the vessel. All 22 crew members are safe and no casualties were reported. After completing the personnel transfer, the rescue vessel used fire water cannons to cool down the bulkhead of the distressed ship to prevent any secondary incidents from occurring.
The vessel was built in 1999. It has a capacity of 1,599 TEU and a deadweight tonnage of 23,596. It flies the flag of Panama. At the time of the incident, the vessel was en route from Nakhodka, Russia, to Shanghai.
Post time: Jun-23-2023