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A container ship berthed at Thailand’s Laem Chabang port was decimated by a fire and explosion on May 25, 2019, leaving 25 people injured and as many as 130 hospitalized. According to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) under the Thai Ministry of Interior, the ship was named KMTC Hong Kong (IMO 9157753), a vessel built in 1998, owned and managed by a South Korean company. [1]
Of the 35 containers remaining on the ship, investigators found calcium hypochlorite in 13 containers and chlorinated paraffin wax in five others. It is now believed that the ignition of these chemical cargoes caused the fire.
According to the Thai newspaper The Nation, owners of these cargoes had not declared the highly flammable chemicals to the Thai Customs Department, so “a preliminary report on Saturday had said there were no toxic chemicals onboard and the cargo only contained dolls”.[2]
“Generally, every shipment of toxic chemicals, including transferring of shipment, has to be declared before they enter our ports,” Director Kamolsak Phromprayoon of the Port Authority of Thailand (PAT) said. “But as the ship’s company had not declared these toxic chemicals, it would be the duty of the shipping company to claim the damage from the shipment’s owners.”
PAT said that the value of the damage caused by the KMTC fire and explosion was more than $3 million, and an initial fine of THB50,000 ($1,570) had been imposed on the company.
