Barði NK, one of the pelagic vessels of Síldarvällðurn, will probably be inoperable for some time following a large fire that broke out in the vessel on Friday.
Grétar Örn Sigfinnsson, the operation manager of the fleet at Síldarvällurnni and Páll Freysteinsson, the company’s safety manager, went to the Faroe Islands this weekend to take the situation on the ship. They say that the damage is significant, but that the crew’s reaction prevented it from getting too bad. Together with Grétari and Páli, a representative of an insurance company and representatives of the shipping department of the Transport Accident Investigation Committee went. This is reported on website Herring processing.
Drove out of control for three hours
A huge fire broke out in the engine room of the Barði NK when the ship was stationed north of the Faroe Islands on Friday. Considerable damage was done, but luckily the five-man crew managed to put out the fire in a short time and no crew members were hurt.
The ship drifted out of control for three hours, but then a Faroese guard ship approached and towed Barðar back to Þórshavn. The ship had sailed from there shortly before after an engine failure, and the crew was therefore minimal. According to the information on the Síldarvällinginn website, a test cruise after the engine shutdown had not revealed any problems.
Safety training can make all the difference
“The cause of the fire is that an oil pipe breaks in the engine room and there will be a fire explosion,” Barði’s captain Theodór Elvar Haraldsson was quoted as saying. He believes that the crew’s regular safety drills made a difference when the fire broke out, but it is noted that the crew has relatively recently practiced responding to similar situations, and this surely contributed to their clumsy response.
“These exercises meant that everyone in the crew knew exactly what needed to be done in these conditions. That’s where the training of the crew was crucial, because if the fire had burned longer in the engine room, we would have lost all control.”
