Ship Fire - Port Botany
Published: 5th January 2010
At 1.30am on Tuesday 5 January 2010, twenty Fire Rescue Officers were called to a 45,000 tonne container ship which was berthed at Port Botany. When crews arrived they reported that smoke was issuing from the bridge area of the ship. Fire Rescue Officers wearing breathing equipment quickly entered the vessel and despite heavy smoke logging were able to locate a fire that had occurred in one of the accommodation areas of the vessel. The fire had been brought under control by the ship's own fire protection systems and firefighters worked for a further two hours to totally extinguish the fire. As a result of smoke a total of 15 ship's crew members were conveyed to hospital for observation. An accommodation area and section of hallway were extensively damaged by the fire which at this stage has been determined as accidental. Fire crews from Matraville, Botany, Maroubra and Alexandria attended the incident.