Photo credit: Brand- und Katastrophenschutz Stadt Speyer.
In the early hours of December 16, the fire brigade and rapid response teams of the German city of Speyer announced in their social media that they were alerted to a passenger ship that had caught fire on the river Rhine, and was moored on the city of Speyer riverbank.
When the emergency services arrived at the passenger ship they found an overall critical situation, as around 150 passengers were said to be on board, plus the 50 crew.
The passenger ship had made it with its bow into the area of a river jetty where the crew was just fastening a rope. At the stern of the passenger ship the flames were blazing from the ventilation slots in the engine room with thick smoke rising into the night.
The authorities mentioned that the passengers were all on the upper deck without any panic, as the crew had everything under control and they reported the most important thing in this situation “that there were no missing people and no injuries”.
The ship had to be secured at the stern as quickly as possible so that emergency services could climb over and bring the passengers and crew to safety on the shore, so a multi-purpose fire brigade boat pushed the stern of the passenger ship towards the shore until it could also be moored, and the situation was thus stabilized overall.
The multi-purpose fire brigade boat then carried out firefighting work and started cooling off the sides of the stricken ship, because the fire in the engine room was so hot that paint was already peeling off the outside of the ship’s walls and hull.
The fire was under control within a short time, the authorities stated, but the follow-up extinguishing work was complex and time-consuming. It was only around two hours after the fire brigade arrival that it could be reported that the “fire is out”.
A total of 16 firefighters with breathing apparatus bottles were needed to extinguish the fire.
The passengers were thereafter allowed to collect their luggage onboard, so little by little their suitcases could be packed, and departure of them could be arranged. The city of Speyer authorities mentions that the entire nautical crew reacted excellently, cooperated and supported. This applies above all to the captain and to the on-board engineer, but also to the hotel management crew onboard.
The stricken passenger ship is currently still laying on the Helmut Kohl berth at the river Rhine and is not ready to sail. The waterway shipping administration is now clarifying with the harbor master, the shipping company and the insurer what the next steps are.
