‘ATHENA’ HELD OUTSIDE PORT UNTIL SAFETY CRITERIA MET

Salvage and fire-fighting operations are continuing on the ‘Athena’ fish factory ship and the vessel remains outside Falmouth port limits until the pre-determined conditions for her entry have been fully met, and have been verified by an independent assessment team.
 
Those conditions include stability; integrity of the vessels hull and draft restrictions for bringing her into port. Part of the assessment team include representatives from Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service.
 
The ‘Athena’ is still carrying bunkers made up of 310 tonnes of heavy fuel oil (HFO) and 220 tonnes of marine gas oil (MGO). Some ‘hot spots’ have been identified but they are in the cargo spaces and are well away from the fuel tanks.
 
The vessel remains off the coastline and outside port limits, and this is helping to dilute any overboard water discharges resulting from the fire-fighting operations.
 
Early on Wednesday 27 October 2010 the Faroese registered ‘Athena’ was reported to have a fire onboard 235 nm South West of the Isles of Scilly. As well as bunker fuel and ammonia, the vessel had 750,000 cardboard boxes on board.
 
The container vessel ‘Vega’ responded to the distress call and picked up 98 crew members from the ‘Athena’. The remaining 13 crew stayed on board and eventually abandoned ship within Falmouth Port limits on the evening of 28 October 2010.
 
A consortium of SMIT / JP Knight was quickly appointed as salvors to extinguish the fire and safely re-deliver the vessel back to her owners in Falmouth.
 
The Secretary of States Representative in Maritime Salvage and Intervention (SOSREP) Hugh Shaw, then established a Salvage Control Unit (SCU) in which he leads a grouping comprising of owners and insurers representatives, salvors, The Cornwall Standing Environment Group ( SEG), Falmouth Port and the MCA Counter Pollution Branch. Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service have attended on an ad-hoc basis.  
 
The Cornwall Standing Environment Group who are monitoring the developments comprise of a number of government bodies such as the Marine Management Organisation, Natural England, Cornwall Council and the Environmental Agency. As no overboard discharges will be permitted within the port area there is a need to quench any such ‘hot spots’ as far as practicably possible before bringing the vessel into port.
 
Hugh Shaw said
 
‘My clear aim is to ensure that all reasonable measures have been taken to secure the integrity of the vessel and reduce the risk to safety, and the risk of pollution by hazardous substances and to that end I have instructed that an independent Assessment Team be brought together to go offshore and ensure that the stringent "place of refuge” entry conditions have been met to reassure the Port Authority and local residents.”
 
 

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