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A merchant ship is anchored off Sagres after a fire broke out Saturday morning in the engine room. The ship, which was adrift for some time, has the support of the Navy and the Maritime Police.
Spanning the length of more than three football pitches, the ‘Elbe’, a Danish container ship, is at anchor some 3.5 kilometers from the port of Baleeira in Sagres. The ship was left without propulsion due to a fire in the engine room, when it was sailing about 37 kilometers south of Portimão. Then he went to the Sagres area, where he managed to anchor, with the help of the ‘Cassiopeia’ motorboat of the Portuguese Navy and another boat of the Lagos Maritime Police.
As he referred this Sunday to CM Commander Pedro Palma, from the Port of Lagos Captaincy, which coordinates operations to support the Elbe, the fire “broke out in the early hours of Saturday but caused no casualties, only material damage.” The owner was alerted and on Sunday technicians were trying to repair the damage. “If this is not possible, the ship will be towed to a nearby port to be repaired,” said the same official, clarifying that “there is already a tugboat on site.”
The 366-meter merchant ship is visible from a great distance. The crew, a total of 32, managed to extinguish the fire that had started on board. The fire only affected the engine room. The team to combat sea pollution based in the South Maritime Department, belonging to the National Maritime Authority, has been activated and is on standby if necessary to act. The ship is supposed to have to be towed to a nearby port if efforts to repair it are unsuccessful.
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