The fire aboard a Maersk Line containership in the Arabian Sea has officially claimed its first victim, the shipowner said.
One of the crew members successfully evacuated from the 15,262-teu Maersk Honam (built 2017) on Tuesday, a Thai national, has been confirmed dead.
Maersk Line said the man’s health condition drastically deteriorated on Wednesday afternoon due to the injuries sustained in connection to the fire.
“We are deeply saddened with the passing of one of our colleagues who in the first place had been evacuated,” said AP Moller – Maersk chief operating officer Soren Toft.
“The seriousness of the event has escalated and everyone in Maersk is moved by this. We are in contact with the family of the deceased and our thoughts and condolences go to them.”
Maersk Line said the current status is that 22 crew members are enroute to Sri Lanka on board the 4,380-teu containership ALS Ceres (built 2010). However, four crew members remain missing.
“We are doing our outmost in this tragic situation to care for all evacuated colleagues and continue the intense search and rescue operations ongoing for the four crew members currently reported missing,” said Toft.
Separately, Maersk Line said the fleet conducting search and rescue operations has now been expanded to five with the 18,340-teu Mærsk Mc-Kinney Moller (built 2013) is coordinating efforts.
The Maersk Honam reported a serious fire in a cargo hold on Tuesday at 15:20 GMT, while enroute from Singapore towards Suez.
Maersk Line said the fire onboard the vessel continues and it described the situation of the vessel as “very critical”.
The Singapore-flagged vessel is currently positioned around 900 nautical miles southeast of Salalah, Oman.
