Dramatic Footage of Greek Ship on Fire Off Vancouver Island, Canada

Canada’s Coast Guard announced on Wednesday that the Greek-owned ship Zim Kingston has lost over 100 containers off the coast of Vancouver Island after listing in bad weather.

Gillian Oliver, the Coast Guard’s advanced-planning unit leader, announced that waters were combed earlier this week by air in order to spot any of the fallen containers. Crews have reached the ship and found that over 100 containers had fallen off the Greek bulk carrier.

The ship involved is the Zim Kingston, operated by Greek shipping company Danaos Shipping. The bulk carrier fell into tumult on Sunday after listing during a storm off the coast of British Columbia on Friday. The storm caused a fire to start on the ship on Monday morning. The fire, storm, and ship have since stabilized, but the havoc caused at least 106 containers to fall overboard, some of which contained hazardous materials.

Oliver said that she and her team are working to trace the locations of all of the missing containers with Danaos, which they believe have drifted northward. “Based on the information we last have on the co-ordinates of those containers and on the Environment Canada trajectory modeling, we believe that the containers are somewhere around the Cape Scott area in north Vancouver Island.”

 

Authorities are not yet sure what caused fire to start on Zim Kingston

The containers that fell off the ship were transporting toys, clothing, automotive parts, industrial parts, and furniture. Two containers that are currently unaccounted for contained hazardous materials. The Coast Guard has reported that a few containers have now sunk, and the environmental unit is currently addressing the effects this may have on the coast.

Four containers and the fragments of other containers and their contents have been found on the shore at Cape Scott on the northern part of Vancouver Island. Those containers did not have hazardous material amongst their contents, the Coast Guard said.

“The location is remote and rugged, and planning for recovery operations is underway,” the Coast Guard posted on their official Twitter account.

Authorities are not currently sure what exactly caused the fire that started on Monday. The fire took place inside containers that were on the ZIM Kingston.

The ship is currently anchored at the Constance Bank Anchorage south of Victoria, B.C.

Dave Pridham, the deputy provincial incident commander, said that the air quality in the area is being watched in order to trace the effects of the fire and their potential impact on public health. Surfrider Foundation Vancouver Island, a local environmental group, said that “materials from this fire are considered hazardous and should not be collected by the general public.”