COAST GUARD CONDUCTS A MAJOR FIRE FIGHTING OPERATION OFF BOMBAY HIGH

An OSV, Greatship Rohini, with 18 crew onboard reported fire onboard on 13 February while the ship was 92 nautical miles north-West off Mumbai, near the NQO Platform of Mumbai High. While one crew reported with fire injury was evacuated and disembarked ashore by ONGC helicopter at Mumbai for medical treatment, three others were reported missing and trapped in the engine room. On receipt of the information, Coast Guard Operation Centre Mumbai diverted Offshore Patrol Vessel Samarth to the scene of action. Simultaneously, CG Dornier aircraft was launched for assessment of the situation. CG Ship Samarth reached area at 1335 hrs on 13 February and took over as On Scene Coordinator. Initially, MV Albatross-5 operating in vicinity, tied up a hawser from forecastle of Greatship Rohini and pulled her out to safe location from NQO platform rig.

ICGS Samarth with its advance External Fire Fighting system in coordination with OSV Priya 27, established boundary cooling for controlling the spread of fire. Due to excessive heat and smoke the crew of Greatship Rohini were unable to enter the engine room, where the fire had started. The Boarding Team from ICG Ship Samarth boarded the vessel for carrying out situation assessment. However, the efforts of the team were impinged due to heat and heavy smoke gushing out of engine room. Fire-fighting efforts were restricted due to non-availability of power supply onboard. Meanwhile, Pollution Control Vessel Samudra Praheri was sailed out to reach scene of incident to augment the fire fighting and rescue efforts. The ship reached area at 1930 hours on 13 February.

Specialist Damage Control and Fire Fighting team comprising of 11 ICG personnel (including 02 officers and 9 EP) and 8 personnel of distressed vessel (Master, Chief Engineer, Second Officer, Chief Officer and 04 crew) embarked the vessel at about 0800 hours on 14 February for de-flooding and further damage assessment. Specialist team reported no visible signs of fire or smoke from the engine room and state of vessel to be stable.

All 14 rescued crew were transferred to OSV Great ship Dipti for passage to Mumbai. The distressed vessel is presently being towed by another OSV Greatship Anjali under the escort of ICGS Samudra Prahari and other support vessels.