A crane was damaged after it went into flames while loading cargo to Merchant Vessel Yasa Falcon in the WQ-1 berth of Visakhapatnam port on Monday. However, no casualties were reported.
An electrical short-circuit in the engine of the crane is suspected to have caused the fire, the officials said after the preliminary assessment.
The merchant vessel was immediately shifted to another berth.
A senior official of Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) said fire broke out in the crane, owned by Seapol Port Private Limited, at around 5.15 p.m.
The VPT fire float, shore fire tenders and water tankers were rushed to the spot and the flames were brought under control within an hour.
‘Port ops not hit’
“Port operations were not hit due to the incident,” a VPT official said.
Incidentally, this was the third fire accident to be reported from the city this month involving two cranes and an offshore support vessel Jaguar which was burnt in the outer harbour, killing three persons and injuring many.
The vessel was hired by HPCL and the incident occurred at the single point mooring.
Another crane was gutted at the multi-modal logistics park of CONCOR near the Visakhapatnam international airport.
