Was it an exploded battery or metal bra? On the quay next to the burning cargo ship, bystanders already have the cause

You sometimes hear that iron cannot burn, « says Co, » but here you see the opposite.  » Co, stabbed in an orange vest, works at a company in the Western port area in Amsterdam and before he started his day with a colleague, went to the quay to look at the burning ship. Dark smoke clouds come from the cargo ship of 185 meters long and 32 meters wide. Cranes get grippers full of scrap from the ship, which is extinguished on the quay. Several extinguishing boats sail in the water, spraying towards the ship.

The fire brigade has been working on it since the end of Thursday afternoon, just after five o’clock the report came. It is not yet known how the fire originated. The fire is difficult to extinguish because various cargo streams in which scrap is burned are not easily accessible. The shutters of one of the space of the ship, year of construction 2011, are weakened by the heat and therefore closed, so that the burning scrap cannot be removed. The fire brigade still expects to be ‘long’, but cannot specify the duration.

I think there has been a battery

On the Amsterdam Scrap Terminal (AST) in the western port area, trucks supply scrap, which is shipped from there. « Spearhead » by AST is the shipping of different types of iron to Turkey, the company, which does not want to respond, writes on the website. The ship was in the harbor since 9 May and was already loaded when the fire started.

Bystanders have their own ideas about how the fire started. « I think there was a battery in between, » says an employee of an adjacent waste processing company who does not want his name in the newspaper. He just let his dog out on the port site. « And that that battery has exploded. » It is not intended that batteries will end up in scrap – metal waste -, but there is regular waste in between, the director of a scrap processing company said last year an interview in NRC. « You had to know how much of what comes with a scrap processor is not scrap. (…) People throw that at the municipal yard in the wrong container, or it is attached to the old iron that they hand in. » Sorting machines must prevent such waste from staying between the scrap, but sometimes something is left behind, thinks the employee who walks his dog.

Soot

Schroot is just like a bale hay, says Co. « You all have that thin turn material. It can bog if moisture is added. » Examples are known of ‘metal huming’ in cargo ships, with iron that eventually warmed up led to a fire.

The ship is now still level in the harbor, says Co, « but I can also imagine that the metal drops through the bottom, if it gets too hot. »

According to the Amsterdam Safety Region, the cloud of smoke contains no increased concentrations of hazardous substances above the city. ‘Different measurements’ have been performed which shows. Several NL-Alerts were sent, because soot particles were found in the areas that the smoke was pulled over. The fire brigade advises to remove it ‘with soapy water’ and not to eat vegetables from their own vegetable garden that contain those particles. The fire brigade recommends Amsterdammers who live in the area of ​​the clouds of smoke to close windows, lasting and ventilation grilles. Het Parool Reports that different schools are struck outdoor activities.

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