Crane catches fire at port
VP of corporate development doesn’t expect big impact on operations
Firefighters with the St. John’s Regional Fire Department are dwarfed by a huge Oceanex crane as smoke billows from it as they hose down a fire onboard the machine.
An Oceanex employee was operating a crane at the company’s terminal at St. John’s harbour Monday afternoon when the machinery caught fire.
Once the fire was under control, Matthew Hynes, vice-president of corporate development, told The Telegram the man was able to get out of the crane safe and unhurt.
Hynes said the company was alerted of the fire around 4:30 p.m.
The St. John’s Regional Fire Department got it under control with a little help from the crew of the Connaigre, which was a little too close to the fire for comfort. SJRFD platoon chief Brian Tucker said the ship was about 30-40 feet away.
“We were questioning whether or not we were going to move the boat. The skipper of the boat was worried,” Tucker said.
“The crane was actually in over the edge of the boat, the lift station they have for lifting the containers was over the side of the boat, and we managed to get the fire under control before we had to move the ship.”
The Connaigre had firefighting equipment aboard, and the crew helped kill the flames with fire hoses.
Hynes said no neighbouring property or equipment was damaged by the fire.
While he said the extent of the fire is not yet known, an employee said the crane was “toast.”
It’s possible it could be a pricy fire; a similar Liebherr Mobile Harbour Crane LHM 400, built in 2007, is valued on alibaba.com at more than
$540,000 Canadian.
But Hynes said they won’t know until the company can investigate and work with the manufacturer to determine what repairs may be needed.
“Our immediate concern, of course, is for the health
and safety of the employees, so we’re happy that no one was injured here. Second is operating the business. ... We’ll figure out what we need to do to minimize the effect on our customers,” he said.
He said he does not expect the fire to have much of an ef-
fect on operations.
“The ship will be turned around as quickly as possible. We’ll do what we can, make every effort to make sure that there’s no impact,” he said.