The fire that broke out on Tuesday on the ship Greta K off Porto was still active today, but under control, more than 16 hours after the alert, said the captaincy of the port of Aveiro, around 07:00.
“Everything stays the same as last night [terça-feira]. The ship [que transporta combustível refinado] continues about 11 miles from the shoreline [quase 18 quilómetros] and it has two harbor tugboats providing assistance, maintaining the position and cooling the structures with water jets”, the commander of the Port of Aveiro told Lusa.
According to Captain Silva Rocha, at around 07:00, the captain and two crew remained on site and on the tugboats to provide the necessary technical assistance.
“We are waiting for the arrival of the Frigate Corte-Real from the Navy so that later the technical teams can make a more rigorous assessment of what is happening on the ship”, he said.
According to the Portuguese Navy, the alert was given around 15:30 on Tuesday to the “Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) of Lisbon, of the Navy” for a “fire on the Greta K tanker, with flag of Malta, which was sailing about a mile and a half from the coast, about three kilometers, next to Praia dos Ingleses, in Foz do Douro, with 19 people on board, all Filipino nationals”.
According to the captain of the Port of Aveiro, there was no fuel spillage, keeping the vessel in its physical integrity.
At 07:00 a lifesaving vessel, another one belonging to the Maritime Police and two harbor tugboats were on site.
“There are no injuries to report. Only one of the crew was taken to the hospital with complaints in one hand”, said Captain Silva Rocha.
The Greta K ship, which caught fire off Foz do Douro, in Porto, was at 5:45 pm, at the time of the incident, four kilometers from the coast, coming from the port of Sines, according to the Marine Traffic application .
The burning ship was heading for the port of Leixões, in Matosinhos, added the Civil Protection source.
On Tuesday night, the crew were removed, with three remaining, and the vessel was being towed away from the coast, according to the Portuguese Navy.
The Administration of the Ports of Douro, Leixões and Viana do Castelo (APDL), which had a bar pilot on board to support the ship heading to Leixões, quickly managed to put three tugboats on board to help fight the fire. The Captain of the Port of Douro and Leixões also pledged two vessels from the Leixões Lifeguard Station, according to a statement from the Navy.
The ship, which has “on board diesel and fuel for aircraft (jet fuel) and does not have crude oil”, was towed to an area far from the coast.
On Tuesday, the Navy indicated that it was reinforcing the material and the pollution-fighting teams in the event of a source of pollution, while the Hydrographic Institute, of the Navy, was also monitoring the situation for the eventual need to calculation of the drift, in case of a source of pollution.
