From Seatrade Maritime:

Following the tragic fire on the Maersk Honam earlier this year that left five dead Maersk Line has new guidelines for the stowage of dangerous cargoes across all 750 vessels in its fleet.

The Risk Based Dangerous Goods Stowage have been developed with the aim of minimizing risk to crew, cargo, environment and vessel in case a fire develops.

Container fires such as the blaze in March on the Mearsk Honam have been an all too common occurrence in container shipping leading to both loss of life and serious damage to vessels. The fires are also extremely difficult to extinguish and in the case of the Maersk Honam although the crew activated the vessel’s CO2 system it did not put out the fire.

“All cargo aboard Maersk Honam was accepted as per the requirements of the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code and stowed onboard the vessel accordingly. Despite this, as the fire originated in a cargo hold in front of the accommodation which held several containers with dangerous goods, it had an unbearably tragic outcome,” said Ole Graa Jakobsen, head of fleet technology at Maersk.

“This clearly showed us that the international regulations and practices with regards to dangerous goods stowage needs to be reviewed in order to optimally protect crew, cargo, environment and vessels.”

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