Firefighters have gone into the hatch of a container ship the Kokopo Chief, moored at the Port of Tauranga in New Zealand where a fire broke out in the early hours of Sunday morning. Source: Stuff NZ
The Kokopo Chief, moored at the Port of Tauranga in New Zealand was loaded with timber.
The fire in the hull was doused by the ship’s CO2 suppression system after escalating temperatures set the system off on Sunday morning.
The fire was dampened by the CO2, but staff were vigilante as they worked to remove damaged timber.
A fire investigator at the scene was waiting to examine how the fire started.
“They opened up the hatch cover and found no fire present – the CO2 dampened it out,” he said.
“The hatch cover and a lifting device used to lift the timber was damaged, so our guys are working with the ship’s crew to get the damaged timber out.”
Sixteen fire trucks from Tauranga, Mt Maunganui, Rotorua and Hamilton attended the blaze.
Firefighters remained at the scene in case the fire reignites during the extraction process.
Seventy firefighters attended the fire, which did not affect two of the ship’s holds. The alarm was raised about 1am on Sunday.
The ship was carrying 650 tonnes of dressed timber.
