Public warned as huge chemical fire breaks out at Laem Chabang port

[rooster59]

Public warned as huge chemical fire breaks out at Laem Chabang port

 

 

Posts on Facebook and in the mainstream Thai media reported that a container ship docked at Laem Chabang port exploded this morning. 

 

It was a chemical fire and resulted in noxious fumes and particles being emitted into the air over a wide area. 

What chemical it was was not known.

 

But people reported itches and skin problems. People were advised to avoid the area and wash any exposed skin immediately. 

 

A video on the page of Siraphop Srakaew showed someone fleeing the fire. 

 

 

Still pictures showed cars and clothing covered in debris. 

 

The explosion just after 7.30 am and fire were at berth L-A2 aboard the ship KMTC Hong Kong. 

 

Sri Racha rescue services and fire personnel were on the scene. 

 

More about this as we hear of it.

 

Sources: Thai Rath and Facebook

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-05-25

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[rooster59]

Urgent : At least 25 workers injured after explosion on ship at Laem Chabang Port

By The Nation

 

 

At least 25 port workers were injured and local people were evacuated following an explosion in a container on a ship at Laem Chabang Port in Chon Buri’s Sri Racha district on Saturday morning.

 

Laem Chabang port director Vice Admiral Yutthana Mokkhao said an urgent investigation was being undertaken to determine the contents of the container. The Hong Kong ship was docked at A2 port, the director said.

 

At the time of explosion, about 8am, scores of port employees were working in the area.

 

The explosion sent clouds of an unknown white power into the air as well as black smoke from the fire.

 

It was reported that at least 25 of the workers were sent to a nearby hospital after being exposed to the white powder. 

 

Workers remaining at the scene were seen dousing their faces with water to wipe off the powder.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30369979

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-05-25

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[apalink_thailand]

It would help if people spent 5 minutes actually reading an MSDS. They might then have a clue (1) how to pack it and store it (2) how to protect from human exposure and what the effects and 1st aid will be (3) how to put out a fire in this chemical (4) how to protect the local environment (waterways). But no....reading it is not important.

[from the home of CC]

27 minutes ago, apalink_thailand said:

It would help if people spent 5 minutes actually reading an MSDS. They might then have a clue (1) how to pack it and store it (2) how to protect from human exposure and what the effects and 1st aid will be (3) how to put out a fire in this chemical (4) how to protect the local environment (waterways). But no....reading it is not important.

They would have to read English first..

[Briggsy]

It is still going on. There is a thick plume of pale grey ash (?) still hanging over the ship and visible from miles away. Nobody evacuated me! I never knew about it till I read it here.

[legend49]

47 minutes ago, apalink_thailand said:

It would help if people spent 5 minutes actually reading an MSDS. They might then have a clue (1) how to pack it and store it (2) how to protect from human exposure and what the effects and 1st aid will be (3) how to put out a fire in this chemical (4) how to protect the local environment (waterways). But no....reading it is not important.

Thais wont read anything and safety is not a word they know.

[OnTheRun]

35 minutes ago, monkeycu said:

Can Thai's read anything but comics ????

This is not isolated to Thailand. After seeing the news regarding this I did a google search where various articles state that on average there is a fire aboard a container ship every 60 days. 

[jacko45k]

41 minutes ago, monkeycu said:

Can Thai's read anything but comics ????

Only if it is on a phone.

[Snow Leopard]

I agree with everything said in this post but in this case, ask yourself this?

 

It's on a containership correct? No one would touch anything inside a container on board a ship. So the containers have started leaking themselves and found an ignition source or the container has been damaged in some way. 

[geoffbezoz]

33 minutes ago, OnTheRun said:

This is not isolated to Thailand. After seeing the news regarding this I did a google search where various articles state that on average there is a fire aboard a container ship every 60 days. 

same ship ? ????

[Shiver]

54 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

Only if it is on a phone.

Just an hour ago I was doing something online regarding my wife's business (copying and pasting invoice images as proof of payment to a supplier) and she said "using computer very difficult, why not use phone?".  That's when I realised she's a millennial and I'm not.

MSDS uses "international" English (as do airlines, doctors etc), so for 'schooled' Thais maybe it's not so easy.

While we don't know what that event is yet, imagine a container of Lithium batteries, a couple more of volatile salts, metals and add water and .... uh oh.  Any number of combinations of things could cause a lot of issues.

[Franko666]

I’m sure the cruise ships enjoyed the shenanigans.

[Benmart]

1 hour ago, OnTheRun said:

This is not isolated to Thailand. After seeing the news regarding this I did a google search where various articles state that on average there is a fire aboard a container ship every 60 days. 

That may be true, however, I am here in Thailand and am more concerned about this local event.

[overherebc]

If the port is closed what's the traffic situation on the main road outside.

[hotchilli]

1 hour ago, Briggsy said:

It is still going on. There is a thick plume of pale grey ash (?) still hanging over the ship and visible from miles away. Nobody evacuated me! I never knew about it till I read it here.

You're not an important person.... no offence intended, I'm generalising

[Sealbash]

Thais wont read anything and safety is not a word they know.

You are certain this is a Thai flagged vessel with a Thai crew?


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[onthemoon]

45 minutes ago, Shiver said:

Just an hour ago I was doing something online regarding my wife's business (copying and pasting invoice images as proof of payment to a supplier) and she said "using computer very difficult, why not use phone?".  That's when I realised she's a millennial and I'm not.

MSDS uses "international" English (as do airlines, doctors etc), so for 'schooled' Thais maybe it's not so easy.

While we don't know what that event is yet, imagine a container of Lithium batteries, a couple more of volatile salts, metals and add water and .... uh oh.  Any number of combinations of things could cause a lot of issues.

The relevant people in the port are well trained and can read the MSDS. So can the captain of this vessel, and so can the people in the port of loading and the shipper. So far, nobody chose to inform the press what chemical this, that's all.

[Briggsy]

21 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

You're not an important person.... no offence intended, I'm generalising

From the original story, "Local people were evacuated."

[balo]

2 hours ago, Briggsy said:

It is still going on. There is a thick plume of pale grey ash (?) still hanging over the ship and visible from miles away.

You're not in Bangkok anymore? Maybe less pollution there. 

[chang1]

3 hours ago, apalink_thailand said:

It would help if people spent 5 minutes actually reading an MSDS. They might then have a clue (1) how to pack it and store it (2) how to protect from human exposure and what the effects and 1st aid will be (3) how to put out a fire in this chemical (4) how to protect the local environment (waterways). But no....reading it is not important.

It is a container ship so the crew may not know what is in each container. They need to know which containers are on fire before they can find out what kind of cocktails of chemicals are involved. I doubt if they will find out before it is safe to get back on the ship and go through the records and get information from the company's that filled the relevant containers.

Hope the debris is being analysed as it probably will be quicker to get an idea of how to deal with it.

[bubba]

3 hours ago, apalink_thailand said:

It would help if people spent 5 minutes actually reading an MSDS. They might then have a clue (1) how to pack it and store it (2) how to protect from human exposure and what the effects and 1st aid will be (3) how to put out a fire in this chemical (4) how to protect the local environment (waterways). But no....reading it is not important.

Quote

"It was a chemical fire and resulted in noxious fumes and particles being emitted into the air over a wide area. 

What chemical it was was not known."

What would help even more would be determining what the chemical is so that someone can look up the associated MSDS (or SDS).

[geoffbezoz]

1 minute ago, bubba said:

What would help even more would be determining what the chemical is so that someone can look up the associated MSDS (or SDS).

Assuming the cargo manifests are correct they will know the chemical-or should. The problem arise when what is contained is not what has been declared. Whilst customs officers elsewhere are quite good I suspect that if that container was due for offloading/Loading, the article didn't say which,  then maybe if something was coming in/going out that was for some reason not wanted to be identified then the inspecting Thai officer would be paid off. We don't know of course but stranger things have happened.

[peter2186]

A material Safety data sheet is of course useful, but the container should have had a Hazchem or Hazmat sign applied to it that is easier to understand and provides adequate information in pictorial form, to cope with an emergency. In addition one would have thought that any hazardous materials imported into Thailand would be subject to some form of control and inspection before the ship was allowed to berth and the MSDS provided up front

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I hope the BMTA didn't have any of their Chinese NGV buses loaded on that ship.... 

[Briggsy]

2 hours ago, balo said:

You're not in Bangkok anymore? Maybe less pollution there. 

As you can see "Location : Sri Racha", I no longer live in Bangkok.

[Speedhump]

Accidents like this happen in ports all over the world, yes, sure, more in less developed countries. Any superhero commenter who is not not involved in loading/unloading  coastal cargoes (even chems) worldwide, just take a pause before answering. If you are just tanker or huge drybulk industry workers, just don't even both to hit 'reply' at all. Shut up with your safety standards practice comments, WE ALL KNOW IT ALREADY. Thanks. These incidents will always occur. God forbid the loss of life, but your IMO etc. international standards will never reach a lot of the world. Never. But people still have to make a living. So they work. ????

[Speedhump]

1 hour ago, snowgard said:

Why you SUPERHERO not go there and help them? After maybe we can see the video when you are rosted because you come in the near of the container!!! Do you have more stupid comments for us?

I just read your post after mine and saw you also used the word superhero as I did in my comment later. I see so many comments on my shipping profile on LinkedIn. So many <deleted> experts quoting international regs when they have no idea how far their booklearned knowledge is from local working conditions in most small ports all over the world. 

[shaurene]

Looks like the fire was forward. Container ship. Have the bridge etc at the rear. This is Thailand. They have an Admiral running the port, what would an Admiral know on running a commercial trading port.

first off.

1: get the documents with the container contents.

2: Or contact the Hong Kong port, one of the mot organised commercial ports in the world. They will give the Thai authorities the contents of the containers. And even the container numbers and where on the deck the containers were chained down.

 

[ttrd]

6 hours ago, apalink_thailand said:

It would help if people spent 5 minutes actually reading an MSDS. They might then have a clue (1) how to pack it and store it (2) how to protect from human exposure and what the effects and 1st aid will be (3) how to put out a fire in this chemical (4) how to protect the local environment (waterways). But no....reading it is not important.

 

Agree, but prior to read an MSDS you need to know what it is ...

 

"What chemical it was was not known"

 

 

 

 

[onthemoon]

2 hours ago, bubba said:

What would help even more would be determining what the chemical is so that someone can look up the associated MSDS (or SDS).

It will be in the ship's manifest as well as the Shipper's Declaration for Dangerous Goods. First thing anyone (except the press) looks at. Captain is well aware and has checked all even before departure, port is aware of it when the manifest is declared 24-28 hours before arrival. 

 

I am really really glad that none of the "superheros" in this thread are involved is the accident relief effort.