A Greek handymax bulker has suffered a cargo hold fire at the port of Southampton over the weekend, according to local emergency services.
The fire aboard the 51,000-dwt Sirina (built 2001) involved a quantity of scrap metal, which was being loaded onto the vessel at Western Docks.
“At 13:51 firefighters were alerted to the fire involving 7,000t of scrap metal which had caused a large smoke plume above the ship in the dry dock,” said Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service.
“Initial crews from Southampton fire stations were joined by appliances from the New Forest and Service Headquarters before relief crews were arranged to take over and work into the night to resolve this incident.”
At one stage local residents were advised to keep their windows shut due to the smoke in the area following the fire at the docks.
A Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service spokesman told the BBC that when crews first arrived smoke was billowing from one of the ship’s holds.
“It was very quickly apparent to us that the fire was about 16 metres down into the scrap metal itself,” he told the UK broadcaster.
“There was no way we were going to be able to put that fire out until we'd taken a lot of that metal out so we could access the scene of the fire.”
The spokesman added that firefighters had worked in “really difficult conditions” as crews tried to remove scrap metal “at the same rate we were putting water in”.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service said in a statement that all persons had been accounted for and no injuries were reported.
