Garda technical experts are due to carry out a forensic examination on Friday to try and establish the cause of a fire which broke out aboard a ghost ship that washed up on the east Cork coast last year.
Cork county fire service was alerted this evening, just before 4pm, to a blaze on board the deck of the MV Alta, the ghost ship which washed up at Ballyandreen near Ballycotton on February 16th, 2020.
Five units of Midleton fire brigade along with two units of Youghal fire brigade proceeded to the scene with some 20 firefighters on standby to try and fight the blaze which was in the living quarters aboard the freighter.
Update on fire on board shipwrecked MV Alta.#Firefighting operations have finished for the evening due to the rising tide and poor light. The fire is substantially extinguished and will be further assessed again tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/88vfDaSyb9
— Cork County Council (@Corkcoco) April 29, 2021
According to Midleton station officer, Mark Sinclair, the fire service carried out an ongoing dynamic risk assessment and decided to adopt a defensive fire fighting strategy and monitor the fire.
Mr Sinclair said that it was deemed advisable to adopt such a defensive approach as they could not actively fight the fire without putting a team with a portable pump aboard the vessel as it was simply too inaccessible.
He explained that they could only get their fire appliances within 500ft of the wreck, and even then they were 100ft above the ship on cliffs so the only viable way to fight the fire would have been to put a team aboard.
However, given the risks involved with rising tides and falling darkness and the fact that the ship is a wreck with little monetary value, it was decided to take a more conservative and cautious approach to fighting the blaze.
Mr Sinclair said such an approach proved vindicated as with falling rain, the fire had substantially extinguished itself by 9pm, but firefighters would return at first light to assess the fire again and see if the blaze had burned itself out.
Unsafe condition
Gardaí, who will continue to monitor the situation overnight, have appealed to the public to avoid the area and not to attempt to gain access to the wreck, which has been further damaged by the fire and was in an unsafe condition.
A garda source said they hope to get on board on Friday to examine the scene of the blaze which they believe may have been started deliberately as all oil and fuel had been removed from the ship in February 2020.
“One thing is sure – that fire didn’t start of its own accord, but until we can get technical experts aboard to see if an accelerant was used, we won’t know how exactly the fire started,” said the source.
Gardaí and Cork County Council recently issued warnings to members of the public to stay away from the vessel after videos were posted on social media of people aboard the stricken 45-year-old freighter.
And the large numbers of people coming to view the freighter has annoyed many locals as the sightseers are parking near their properties, blocking small country roads and trekking across fields to get to see the 77-metre-long ship.
The 2,300 tonne MV Alta made headlines after she drifted across the Atlantic following the evacuation of her crew of 10 by the US coastguard some 1,300 miles south east of Bermuda in October 2018.
Cork County Council engaged a salvage expert to remove oil and diesel from the MV Alta and the operation was successfully carried out in February 2020, when a helicopter removed barrels of fuel.
Specialist consultants
Earlier this year, Cork County Council confirmed it has engaged international specialist consultants to examine the steel hull of the freighter and their report will determine what steps the council will take next with regard to the vessel.
“Over the course of December 2020 and January 2021, the council recruited international specialist consultants to carry out an assessment to prepare an inventory of hazardous materials” in the fabric of the vessel.
“An environmental assessment of this inventory will inform what interventions may be required next,” said the council, which confirmed that structural assessments of the ship will continue every six months.
“The council has engaged with Government departments to seek their view on the future of the wreck and to seek funding assistance in the event of a significant intervention being required,” said the council last February.
According to the council in February, “to date there has been no confirmation of ownership of the wreckage”, which would enable the state to try and recoup the costs of removing the fuels and making it safe as a pollution hazard.
