Containers with charcoal catch fire again in Hong Kong port after blaze on ship at sea
- Units were on Liberia-registered cargo vessel E.R. Kobe which had sailed from Vietnam
Two of 15 containers damaged in a blaze on board a Liberia-registered cargo vessel last week burst into flames again on Wednesday when they were offloaded in Hong Kong for inspection.
Dense smoke billowed from the charcoal-filled units, as they were unloaded from 66,000-tonne container ship E.R. Kobe at Western Anchorage, onto a barge southeast of Tsing Yi shortly before 3.30pm.
The Fire Services Department deployed two fireboats and two diving vessels to the scene. Firefighters later doused the flames and no one was injured.
The two containers were among three storing charcoal. The units were badly damaged in a previous blaze on the ship as it sailed outside Hong Kong waters last Thursday. The 277-metre vessel had left the Haiphong port in Vietnam.
Other containers with unknown cargo were blackened in that incident.
One law enforcement source said crew members doused the flames last Thursday before the ship sailed into Hong Kong on Tuesday for an inspection of the damage. A local agency had been appointed by the vessel owner to conduct checks.