By Andrew Macdonald
Crew were not injured when an engine fire broke out and was fueled for five days, earlier this month on a container ship which recently left the Port of Halifax, with 4,500 TEUs onboard (ship parlance to measure container boxes).
The vessel recently left Halifax Northend’s Fairview Cove and later berthed at the Port of Montreal. The fire started as it was sailing by the Quebec City port and the fire was fueled for five days, before being put out around March 5th, 2024.
It was towed into a dock at Quebec City. On the weekend, there was chatter that the vessel, MSC Sao Paulo V will eventually be towed back to Fairview Cove in Halifax for a recovery operation to remove its cargo from the fire-damaged ship.
After it left the Port of Montreal, it was sailing towards Sines, Portugal.
The PSA Halifax website shows an ETA at Fairview Cove for March 28th for the stricken ship to arrive in the city’s port.
It is expected to be towed to the Port of Halifax via tug boats, including the tug Ocean Taiga.
A fire broke out earlier this month on the container vessel, MSC Sao Paulo V. It is expected to be towed by tug boats to the Port of Halifax, where a recovery effort will be made to remove its containerized boxes. Crew members were not injured and the fire was put out this weekend. (Vessel Finder website image).
PSA Halifax’s chief commercial officer, Jon Chia told The Macdonald Notebook on Sunday that the stricken vessel is expected to be towed to Halifax.
“We are in discussions with MSC to receive the vessel and help with the recovery operations. Notwithstanding, the final greenlight to receive the vessel will have to come from Transport Canada (TC) and the Halifax Port Authority (HPA) as MSC will have to satisfy safety conditions set by TC and HPA before approval can be given to receive and handle the vessel in Halifax, at the time of writing, I am not aware if approval has been given,” wrote Chia.
This is a developing story and The Macdonald Notebook will report more news as it becomes available.
