General average has been declared by the charterers of the ZIM Charleston after a fire that erupted in cargo hold 4 while it was navigating off Colombo on August 8.
It was reported at the time that approximately 300 containers may have been affected by the fire, heat and smoke, and water damage arising from the subsequent firefighting operations.
Marine casualty management firm WKW Webster has advised that general average security will be required from all cargo interests prior to the delivery of their cargo.
ZIM, in the meantime, has remained tight-lipped about the incident on the 8 586-TEU container vessel, which was sailing west off Sri Lanka’s coast when the fire erupted.
The vessel immediately headed for the Port of Colombo where it remained at the East Container Terminal for ongoing investigations into the cause of the fire and the extent of the damage to cargo and the vessel itself.
It’s not the first fire-related incident that the line has had to deal with in the past year.
In October last year the ZIM Kingston caught fire off the coast of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
More than 100 containers were lost overboard at the time, some of them containing hazardous cargo.
