On Thursday afternoon, the police in the East were notified of a fire in a catamaran in the outer Oslofjord. The boat was located between Hvasser and Hvaler.
The police stated that there was still heat in the battery. Now, many hours later, the fire in the batteries is still not extinguished.
The boat has meanwhile been towed to the harbor at Valle in Tønsberg.
– The fire in the batteries has not been extinguished and the temperature in them is rising. The fire brigade and the police are at the casualty now, the police stated.
Safety limit
A new update now states that a safety limit of 300 meters is set from where the boat is at the quay.
– It is recommended that nearby residential buildings close windows again. The police have established guards on site. The fire service is following the situation closely and has a close dialogue with the boat and battery manufacturer.
There are several reasons why a safety limit has been established, says operations manager Trond Egil Groth to Dagbladet.
– Among other things, the smoke from the fire is very dangerous to ingest. The temperature in the batteries has risen sharply and the situation is still unclear, he says at 9.30 pm.
Just before 10 pm, the fire chief on duty, Tor Atle Jakobsen, told Dagbladet that the temperature of the battery was falling.
– We stay here with a fire truck and observe that it is going the right way. One of the reasons we created the safety zone was that we had an element of uncertainty to begin with and that we wanted to be on the safe side.
Jakobsen says that they will make a new assessment of the fire’s development on Friday morning. The manufacturer of the battery has also been on site and assisted the fire department.
– The battery pack on the vessel corresponds to ten larger electric cars.
Four on board
There were four people on board, all were rescued in another boat this afternoon, rescue leader Per Høgnaland at HRS told Dagbladet this afternoon.
– The vessel still has a large development of smoke. Whether there are flames is not certain. The extinguishing work is in progress, he said then.
– The four will be unharmed, as far as we know, he continued.
A few hours later, the Rescue Company announced that the catamaran was being towed to Jarlsø.
– Under difficult conditions, the rescue boat RS172 has now been towed on the vessel that caught fire in the outer Oslofjord this afternoon, and is now towing the catamaran to Jarlsø by Tønsberg on behalf of HRS Southern Norway, the Rescue Company wrote on Twitter.
Photo: The rescue company
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At 20.37, the police in the South-East reported that the boat had been towed into the harbor at Valle in Tønsberg.
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