Oil tanker “Annika”: After fire on tanker: search for cause of fire

The day after the fire on the oil-laden tanker “Annika” on the Baltic Sea, the search for the cause comes to the fore. As soon as possible, fire investigators should go on board and divers should check the hull. The ship was towed into the Rostock harbor on Saturday night, where it moored at 1 a.m. and was surrounded by oil booms.

However, the fire experts cannot start their work straight away. The ship must first rest so that dangerous gases can be removed, as a spokesman for the Rostock water police said. It is still unclear when exactly the investigation inside the ship will begin.

Emergency command is satisfied

The spokesman for the German Emergency Command, Benedikt Spangardt, was satisfied with how the operation went. Three fire departments were involved, from Kiel, Lübeck and Rostock. “The matter ended well in the sense that no one was seriously injured, the crew is OK and we have no water pollution or oil spills in the Baltic Sea.”

The fire on the tanker that caught fire off the coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania broke out early in the morning. The German emergency command announced that the fire on the ship was extinguished in the Rostock overseas port. Around 120 emergency services were deployed. The emergency command completed overall operations management during the night.

“The final check is currently being carried out to determine whether there are still embers.” “In principle, one can assume that the fire on board has been extinguished,” said Michael Allwardt, acting head of the Rostock fire department. At sea, specialized firefighters boarded the “Annika,” including a “first response team” from the Kiel professional fire department. There is no water contamination, he said.

The 73 meter long “Annika” caught fire on Friday morning about 4.5 kilometers from Heiligendamm. During the night it was still unclear where the fire started. “During the operation it was not clear where the fire had started. “In addition to the engine room, a warehouse for paints and varnishes was also considered as a possible source of the fire,” says the accident command’s statement from early in the morning.

The police investigation should provide information about this and the cause of the fire. The deck superstructure with the bridge and the engine room are also located in the rear area, where, according to initial information, the fire broke out.

Specialized firefighters on board

Multi-purpose ships and a sea rescue cruiser cooled the tanker with large amounts of water and fought the fire from the outside. For operations at sea, trained firefighters were finally able to go on board and help prepare the towing trip to Rostock.

According to the information, the “Annika”, which sails under the German flag, is loaded with around 640 tonnes of oil. The ship was on its way from Rostock to Travemünde. Among other things, it is used to supply larger ships with fuel.

Injured sailors released from hospital

The German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People (DGzRS) brought the seven crew members ashore. According to the incident command, several people were slightly injured. They were able to leave the hospital that evening.

Immediately after the accident, the youngest politicians and associations expressed their concern about environmental dangers posed by tanker traffic on the busy Kadet channel between Germany and Denmark. According to initial findings, the cargo hold of the twelve-meter-wide double-hull tanker was not affected. To check whether the hull had suffered any damage, the ship was examined by divers.

The accident occurred within sight of the heavily touristy coast between Warnemünde and Kühlungsborn. The head of the state tourism association, Tobias Woitendorf, said: “This is a situation that we are always afraid of in tourism.”

© dpa-infocom, dpa:241012-930-258447/5

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