Cargo ship fire-fighting off Kerala coast continues; presence of hazardous cargo aggravates concerns

Mangalore Today News Network

Thiruvananthapuram, June 10, 2025: The presence of hazardous cargo in the container ship that caught fire in the sea off the coast of Kerala has further raised safety concerns.

Efforts to put out the fire on the Singapore-flagged container ship Wan Hai 503 is continuing even around 24 hours after the incident. While the 18 crew members rescued were shifted to Mangaluru, efforts to trace the four remaining are still under way.

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and Navy are involved in the operations to put out the fire.

However, the ship has reportedly started tilting, which could escalate into the entire ship sinking eventually. Already, several containers have fallen into the sea.

According to an update from the ICG on Tuesday morning, "fire and explosions persist from mid‑ships to the container bay ahead of the accommodation block. Forward‑bay fire is now under control, though thick smoke remains. The vessel is listing approx 10–15° to port. More containers were reported overboard. ICG ships Samudra Prahari and Sachet are conducting fire fighting operations and boundary cooling."

Meanwhile, the presence of highly flammable substances in the ship that was sailing from Colombo to Nhava Sheva Port in Mumbai has raised serious concerns.

As per the dangerous goods manifest of the ship, 157 containers are carrying cargo of several risk categories. Resin solution, nitrocellulose, diacetone alcohol, paint, hydrocarbons, turpentine, naphthalene and organometallic substances were reported to be among the cargo of the ship that caught fire at around 44 nautical miles off Azhikkal (Kerala) and 130 nautical miles northwest of Kochi by around 9.20 am on Monday.

Already there were serious concerns over the sinking of MSC ELSA-3 off the Kerala coast just around two weeks back, on May 24 and 25. There is still some mystery over the hazardous cargo on that ship.

In view of the fresh ship mishap, the Kerala government is also under pressure to retract from its earlier stand not to initiate legal action against Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) in connection with ELSA-3. Maintaining cordial relationship with the shipping major that operates to the recently commissioned Vizhinjam international seaport was cited by the Kerala government as the justification.