Fishing trawler catches fire at Port of Cape Town

AUTHORITIES are investigating the cause of a fire that broke out on board a fishing trawler in the process of being demolished at the Port of Cape Town yesterday.

The Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) said the Port of Cape Town Port Control reported a fire on board the vessel MF Shinsei Maru No3 berthed at Quay 700 at around 9.30am.

“The MF Shinsei Maru No3 is a dead scrap vessel that was in the process of being demolished. The vessel has no crew on board and the seven workmen who were cutting the hulk vessel were safely evacuated,” TNPA said.

TNPA's Port of Cape Town Fire Department, three harbour tugs, together with the City of Cape Town Fire Department responded to extinguish the blaze.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, TNPA said.

“Due to visibility challenges as a result of the fire smoke, Cape Town Container Terminal operations were briefly suspended resulting in two vessels being impacted, one scheduled to dock and the other container vessel working cargo alongside Quay 601.”

Other port operations are still continuing as normal with the situation being closely monitored.

TNPA Port of Cape Town has invoked Business Continuity Management (BCM) in order to monitor environmental pollution and any disruption to operations.