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Colombo:
An enormous hearth on a stricken oil tanker off Sri Lanka’s coast has been extinguished, the island nation’s navy stated Sunday, as worldwide salvage consultants started to evaluate the injury over fears of an environmental catastrophe if there’s a leak.
The Panamanian-registered New Diamond, carrying over 270,000 tonnes of crude and diesel, was en-route from Kuwait to Paradip port when it issued a misery name Thursday after an engine room explosion that killed a Filipino crew member.
Sri Lanka’s navy chief Nishantha Ulugetenna stated the hearth on the tanker, which the navy chief and the Indian coastguard obtained beneath management on Friday — had lastly been put out.
“The fire has been completely doused,” the vice admiral instructed reporters in Colombo.
“The tanker’s (steel) plates are still very hot so there is a risk of reigniting new fires.”
The Indian coastguard tweeted that “no flame & smoke” was seen from the vessel.
The announcement got here as Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Centre stated overseas salvage consultants and insurance coverage assessors had began analyzing the ship some 75 kilometres from the coast.
Ten British and Netherlands professionals with experience in rescue operations, catastrophe analysis and authorized session arrived earlier Sunday, the navy stated.
Dutch agency Smit Salvage had commissioned the consultants and was additionally sending two tug boats from Singapore and Mauritius, the navy added.
The Indian coastguard, which deployed six ships, an plane and a helicopter, added on Sunday that its air pollution management vessel had arrived on the web site within the Indian Ocean.
The rescue vessels are nonetheless dousing the tanker with water to stop recent fires being ignited in heavy winds lashing the recent metal plates close to the burnt engine room.
The tanker had suffered a crack of its hull some 10 metres (33 toes) above the waterline because of intense warmth from the hearth, officers stated.
Authorities stated there was no oil slick and the crack was not thought-about a catastrophic structural failure.
Sri Lanka’s Marine Environment Protection Agency has stated that authorized motion may very well be taken towards the house owners, Liberian-registered Porto Emporios Shipping Inc, “should the worst happen and the ship breaks up”.
The vessel is bigger than the Japanese bulk provider MV Wakashio, which crashed right into a reef in Mauritius in July leaking greater than 1,000 tonnes of oil into the island nation’s pristine waters.
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