The Greta K ship, which transports “oil and chemical products”, caught fire this Tuesday off Porto, in the Foz do Douro area. The situation is under control but the fire is still active, according to the Navy.
The alert for the fire was given at 15:24, ifaccording to the page of Protection Civil. The Navy says in a press release that the Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) in Lisbon was alerted to a fire “in the Greta K tanker, flying the Maltese flag, which was sailing at about a mile and a half from the coast, about three kilometers, next to Praia dos Ingleses”.
The response to the alert was given by the Administration of the Ports of Douro, Leixões and Viana do Castelo (APDL), which “quickly placed three tugboats on site to help fight the fire”. The Port Authority of Douro and Leixões sent two rescue vessels.
Aboard the ship were 19 people, all Filipino nationals, according to the press release. Of these crew, 12 were rescued “by vessels from the Lifeguard Stations of Leixões, Póvoa de Varzim and the Local Command of the Maritime Police of Leixões”, with the remaining seven remaining on board the ship, which is being towed to “an area away from the coast”.
The Navy adds that the Greta K has on board “diesel and fuel for aircraft (jet fuel)” and adds that it does not have crude oil. He adds that the National Maritime Authority is “reinforcing the material and the pollution-fighting teams for any eventuality of pollution focus”.
It has not yet been determined what may have caused the incident.
Fire broke out in ship’s engine room, expert says
The researcher at the University of Porto Bordalo e Sá, director of the Aquatic Sciences course, told Lusa that the fire broke out in the engine room, at the back of the boat.
“The fire broke out in the back of the boat, that is, in the stern, where the engine room is. Everything indicates that the fire actually broke out in the engine room, without reaching the fuel tanks”.
As explained by Bordalo e Sá, in the past fuels were produced at the Leixões refinery, but the refinery closed and now this material has to come from elsewhere.
Asked by Lusa about whether he is aware of whether there was any spillage into the sea, Bordalo e Sá said that if there was any spillage it was “very limited”
“For now, if there was a spill, it was very limited, it is not yet visible, and, in principle, there will not be. But we already have it here in the area where we are – in Foz do Douro, near Praia dos Ingleses – the smell of fuel, which shows that the ship is not completely watertight”, said Bordalo e Sá, adding that the smell could be the result of the fire, because the back of the ship, the area of the engine room, which is burning it has a direct connection to the ship’s locomotion fuel tanks.
As he explained, the ship has two types of deposits. One to power its engines and the other to transport refined products.
“Be that as it may, a refined product, if it is spilled, has tragic environmental consequences, but on a smaller scale than if it is crude oil”.
By 18:00, the fire was being fought with jets of water that were being launched not only on the engine room, but also on the lids of the tanks to cool down, he added.
“The worst that could happen was a secondary ignition”, he said, explaining that it could be caused by the heating of the entire infrastructure. Trying to cool it down is a correct procedure that is part of the contingency plans when there are these types of accidents.
Asked who was fighting the flames, Bordalo e Sá said that they were the services of the port of Leixões, which has “highly specialized personnel in this type of event”.
News updated at 20:35 with information about the incident and statements by Bordalo and Sá.
