In the Botlek, fire has been raging since early yesterday afternoon on a ship moored at a metal recycling company. The fire was caused by lithium batteries heating up among scrap in the hold of the ship. According to the Rotterdam-Rijnmond safety region, extinguishing the fire could take days.
A lot of smoke is released during the fire. The Rijnmond DCMR Environmental Service received dozens of reports of odor nuisance yesterday, mainly from Rozenburg. In the evening the smoke decreased, but tonight it increased again. The security services then decided to scale up again.
“It is a difficult job,” a spokesperson for the security region tells the regional broadcaster Rijnmond. “It is metal that burns. In addition, you cannot throw unlimited water on that fire, because it is on board a ship.”
extinguish, wait, extinguish
The fire brigade therefore uses a crane to remove so-called ‘hot spots’, hot spots in the hold, from the ship in order to extinguish them on the side. The hatches of the ship have to be opened for this. Once that happens, oxygen gets in and the flames flare up. The smoke also increases.
As soon as the smoke causes too much nuisance for local residents, the fire brigade closes the hatches of the ship and waits until the smoke subsides. “The process then starts again and that just takes time, because you have to wait,” reports a spokesperson for the security region. She expects the entire hold of the ship to be empty.
To get the scrap out of the ship faster, the fire brigade is using two extra cranes. “One from the quay and one from the water. That is a logistical process, because we also have to arrange a place where those cranes can place the hotspots.”
The fire brigade advises residents who are bothered by the smoke to close windows and doors. Four people were checked by ambulance on the spot yesterday because they had inhaled smoke. They did not have to go to the hospital.
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