User talk:Brannmann

((Oil Tanker M.T.Fjord Champion))

MT «Fjord Champion» was an Oil tanker built in Haugesund in 1974. In 2005 it was Owned by Champion Shipping and registered under the Genoa Maritime Sea. It was 170 meters long, 32,477 dwt. It had a crew of 28, all from India. The ship was NIS -Registered.

The fire in 2005 5th March 2005

At the time, the Fjord Champion was commanded by Capt. Raj Kumar and his second in command was First Officer Puneet Raj Singh. The vessel had just completed 'Tank cleaning' operations which had been ongoing since the past 36 hours or so and the First Officer instructed his crew to rest for the night before resuming operations early morning and turned in to take some rest himself around 20:20

A fire alarm in the engine room was triggered at 20.35, while the ship was on its way through the Skagerrak from Liverpool in United Kingdom to Rostock in Germany in ballast condition (i.e. vessel was carrying no cargo but she did have about 800 tonnes of Fuel on board). The ship's position was at that time, approximately 20 nautical miles southeast of Mandal. The ship transmitted a "security" alert at 21.50, but after contact with the ship sent Tjøme Radio a "mayday" alert and notified the Rescue Coordination Centre in Stavanger Airport.

The fire in the engine room was initially reported extinguished by CO2 gas plant and firefighters and smoke divers, led by the First Officer Puneet Raj Singh were pulled back when captain Raj Kumar said there was no need for outside help at the time. Half an hour later however, the captain requested for assistance. There were strong winds (force 7-8) and currents in the area, in addition to snowfall and the ship drifted toward land with at the rate of 3-3.5 knots. The vessel lay dead in the water with her engines stopped and the crew assisting with boundary cooling could be seen trying to get a foothold on the poop deck of the rolling leviathan.

The fire had flared up again in two cabins on the starboard side main deck, aft part of the ship's superstructure and the alarm went off again at 0:16. First Officer Puneet Raj Singh and Second Officer K.J.Elavia assisted by other designated crew members fought the fire relentlessly until it raged out of control and they were unable to extinguish it again, and around 06:05 hrs on the 6th March 2005, were all evacuated by rescue helicopters. Amidst all this drama, the same team also tried to pass the ships mooring lines to a tugboat from the forecastle but the tug was too small for this size of a ship and the attempt was unsuccessful. The Firefighters then returned to below decks and kept fighting the fire until exhaustion took over. This was after a good 7-8 hours of non-stop fire fighting. The First Officer and the Captain were the last 2 persons to evacuate by a Sea king rescue chopper, shortly after they dropped anchor in a last ditch attempt to arrest the vessel's drift towards the rocky coast.

The ship was operational and ran aground southeast of Udvår in Søgne. Here the ship was lying for around seven hours. Only when the tug Haabull reached around 13:00 after being en route from Stavanger from 01:00 and managed to successfully cut the anchor chain, the Fjord Champion was pulled off the ground. At this time it's superstructure was still engulfed in flames.

The ship was then, in the afternoon of 5th March, towed out into open waters and to a safe position south of Flekkerøy in Kristiansand. It was held in position by two tugs while trying to extinguish the fire with water cannons. Around 13.00, 6th March could crew from NCA board to inspect. The ship was progressively heeling and heavily trimmed by the stern. First Officer Puneet Raj Singh, along with the Salvage team, managed to board the vessel and after employing submersible pumps, were able to transfer ballast water internally to keep the vessel from capsizing and making it possible for a towline to be connected.

It was then decided to tow her into shallow waters to gain control without the clear and present risk that the ship could sink in deep water.

Fjord Champion was towed back to Søgne, this time to the protected waters north of Vass Archipelago northwest of Udvår at the inlet to Komlefjorden. Here lay it on the 6th of March with 12° heel while bilge pumps were running at full.

On the 7th March fire fighters and smoke divers boarded and extinguished the last remnants of the fire. Meanwhile divers from the Coast Guard inspected the hull's exterior. During the day the ship was again stable and under control.

On 8th March at. 6:00, the ship was taken under tow again and this time, towards Kristiansand. Around 14.00 the ship was moored in Kristiansand. The plan was to empty the ship of oil for the the sake of safety. Since most of this fuel had frozen solid inside the tanks, portable boilers were deployed to warm the oil and pump it all out which took the better part of 2 days to complete safely. The Fjord Champion had 746 tonnes of fuel oil and 83 tonnes of diesel on board. In the end, no lives were lost, no one sustained any major injury and not single drop of oil wasn't spilled during the operation in a textbook perfect emergency response. The results could have been way worse, catastrophic in fact.

An Official inquiry was held in Kristiansand 9 and 10. March of 2005. This incident attracted a lot of media attention and was in the headlines for the better part of two weeks. The Officers and Crew who directly took charge of the catastrophe, fought the fire and ensured the safe evacuation of all 28 lives on board were lauded for their exemplary efforts. The Owners Champion Tankers Norway took good care of all Officers and Crew and ensured that everyone was taken shopping for clothes, baggage and other essentials as required since they had lost all belongings in the fire.

All Offciers and crew subsequently returned to India (Captain Raj Kumar and First Officer Puneet Raj Singh were the last to fly out) and most of them continued to serve on the other tank vessels owned by Champion Tankers.

Brannmann (talk) 21:01, 26 August 2016 (UTC)