X-press pearl disaster — What has happened?
A devastating incident occurred in the Sri Lankan sea a couple of days back. As you all know, a huge ship called X-press Pearl was engulfed in raging flames. As we see it, it’s just a ship on fire and undoubtedly a huge loss to the owners. But behind this scene, the damage which is inflicted on nature is beyond imaginable. Let’s explore the ins and outs of this chaos.
What is X-press Pearl?
This is a container ship from Singapore that belongs to a company called X-press feeders. X-press Feeders is considered the world’s largest feeder operator. It has a fleet of more than 100 vessels and is ranked top 18 container operators by capacity. X-press Pearl is a huge ship that was built in 2021, and the length is about 186 meters.
What happened with X-press pearl
An unforgiving fire has engulfed the entire ship, and now the owner says that it is beyond rescuable and is a total loss.
On 5th May 2021, The ship X-press Pearl departed from a port called Hazira in India. It arrived in Colombo on 19th May. The ship was carrying around 1480 containers filled with Nitric acid, Cosmetics, and other poisonous chemicals.
The crew detected the first signs of a fire on 20th May. On that day, the crew reported smoke from the cargo hold. According to the emergency procedures, Carbon Dioxide was released, and the related authorities were informed. By then, the ship was already anchored at Colombo. With this report, the firefighter teams and Navy was set on standby.
On the 21st, the crew reported fire on deck. With the help of firefighting tugs deployed by the port and a helicopter, they tried to contain the fire.
On 22nd May, an explosion was heard, and the mission to contain the fire continued.
12 crew members were disembarked from the ship on the 23rd. A team of 12 firefighters was on the site fighting against the fire with the aid of water spraying from tugs, Posh Hardy, Posh Teal, Hercules, Mahawewa, Megha.
Despite the intense efforts of firefighters by the 24th, the fire raged on and continued to spread over the ship. On the 25th, another explosion occurred, and this time it was louder than the first one. Things started to slip off from control, and all the 25 crew members and the 12 firefighters were evacuated. Two of the crew members got injured, and the rest of them, along with the firefighters, were sent to quarantine.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Maritime Environmental Protection Authority (MEPA) announced an oil leak from onboard bunkers and further elaborated that the ship contains 378 tonnes of oil, and half of it might spill into the ocean when all this chaos is over. Yet, they were still unable to deploy oil containment booms owing to the adverse weather conditions.
To help the team which was fighting against the raging fire, India came into the scene with firefighting and pollution controlling coast guard vessels.
Throughout the 26th mission of extinguishing, the fire waged on with the help of firefighting tugs of the Sri Lanka navy, Helicopters, and Indian coast guards.
Amidst the adverse weather conditions, the tugs have been continuously spraying water to extinguish the blaze. On the 27th, after a humongous battle by 28th May, the fire raged for a week was controlled.
The executive chairman of X-Press Feeders, Tim Hartnoll, has said that the reason behind this catastrophe is an acid leak due to poor packaging. The crew had detected the acid leak in the Arabian sea, which is several thousand kilometers away from Sri Lanka. When the crew found out the flaw with the container, the Captain of the ship requested to offload the container with the defect in the ports of Hamad in Qatar and Hazira in India. But unfortunately, the request was turned down, and the container was not allowed to offload. As a result, the ship with the leaking acid made its way to Colombo, where this devastation took place.
What to expect after this chaos?
It’s too early to assess the damage that has happened to the environment. According to the Sri Lanka Maritime Environmental Protection Authority (MEPA), marine life has sustained major damage by this event. The debris from the destroyed ship has spread over many areas, and it would be a difficult task to clean up the mess.
In the worst-case scenario, if the ship sinks, hundreds of tonnes of oil will spill into the ocean and devastate marine life.
Further, they have said that air samples were taken from around the area to test the effect of the fire in the atmospheric condition in the vicinity.
Sri Lanka’s National Building Research Organization is carrying out an investigation on air pollution due to the smoke from the fire.
The possible threats to marine life are under monitoring by the Department of Fisheries and the National Aquatic Resources Research and development Agency.
Another disaster that awaits is plastic pellets that have been thrown into the sea. They are floating in the sea at the moment and may eventually break into tiny fragments, which will pose a greater hazard to marine life.
Conclusion
X-Press Pearl, which faced a catastrophe in the Sri Lankan sea, was only a three-month-old ship. Owing to reckless packaging of hazardous materials, an entire ship carrying poisonous materials caught fire in the sea. The major damage is not to the owner of the ship but the environment. Who will compensate for the damage which was inflicted on marine life? No one can because the devastation cannot be undone by monetary aid.
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