M/V AMSTERDAM BRIDGE - IMO 9450911/ A Burning Bridge at JNPT, Mumbai Harbour
On 09th September afternoon container vessel Amsterdam Bridge caught fire at Mumbai Harbour. Around 1700 hours with fire on board and thick smoke billowing out she moved out to anchorage most likely Master and officers doing a blind navigation.
It was so fortunate in this type of dangerous situation with much smoke making visibility of her navigators to near zero she didn’t cause collision with another vessel(s). At this time wind was SSW 16 Kts. Other vessels in the vicinity could hear Amsterdam Bridge’s Master desperately trying to get assistance from Mumbai VTS and JNPT ( Jawahar Lal Nehru Port Trust).
After almost 0ne and a half hour a Coast guard vessel arrived on scene followed by SCI Pawan a fire fighting tug. Even at mid night the fire was raging and fire fighting vessels in action doing FF and boundary cooling. Seat of fire is believed to be in one of the cargo holds.
It would have been a good practice if VTS is keeping a track of all fire fighting tugs in and near harbour to call them without any delay when there is a need.
From the VHF distress traffic one could make out shore side was not having any information of what dangerous goods are there on Amsterdam Bridge or the stowage locations.
News prints state Coast Guard vessels Subhadra Kumari Chouhan and Samudra Prahari is engaged in fire fighting and pollution control.
The Source: http://shashikallada.com/2012/09/10/amsterdam-bridge-a-burning-bridge-at-jnpt/