Fire aboard Tank Vessel S-Trust

On November 13, 2022, about 1530 local time, a fire started on the bridge of the oil tanker S-Trust while the vessel was docked at the Genesis Port Allen Terminal in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.1 Fire teams from the vessel’s crew extinguished the fire about 1550. There were no injuries, and no pollution was reported. The damage to the vessel was estimated at $3 million.

1.1 Background The S-Trust was a Liberian-flagged, 800-foot-long, steel-hulled liquid bulk cargo vessel (oil tanker) owned by New Trend Ltd and operated by Stalwart Management Ltd. The vessel was built in 2005 and had a cargo capacity of 741,732 barrels. The vessel’s superstructure contained living quarters, the galley, a ship’s office, the cargo control room, and the bridge; it consisted of five decks: the main deck, A deck, B deck, C deck, and the bridge deck.

1.2 Event Sequence On November 11, 2022, at 1142, the S-Trust docked port side to the pier at the Genesis Port Allen Terminal Dock No. 2 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with 464,926 barrels of high-sulfur fuel oil to offload. Cargo offloading started shortly after the vessel was docked, with personnel managing and controlling the transfer from the cargo control room. On November 13, the master of the vessel was working at the desk in his office, one deck below the bridge. He had a video monitor next to his desk that showed closed-circuit camera feeds from throughout the vessel, including one from the vessel’s bridge.

About 1530, the master noted that the camera feed for the bridge was no longer visible, so he went up to the bridge to investigate. When he opened the door to the bridge, smoke came out and activated the smoke detector at the top of the stairwell just outside the door. The master quickly closed the door, went down to the cargo control room, and told the chief mate to stop all cargo operations. After doing so, the chief mate notified the terminal of the fire on the vessel; terminal personnel then contacted the West Baton Rouge Fire Department.

The master returned to the bridge deck to fight the fire; on the way, he used a radio to notify the other crewmembers of the fire. After arriving on the starboard bridgewing, the master opened the starboard-side door to the bridge to evaluate the situation.

He stated that the fire was coming from the communications table. He then proceeded to the port bridgewing and opened the portside door to the bridge, but the smoke was too thick to see into the bridge. He returned to the starboard bridgewing.

The master directed the crew to muster into two fire teams—one on the portside bridgewing and the other on the starboard-side bridgewing. Once the master received notification that all of the electrical power to the bridge was secured, the fire teams began fighting the fire through the port and starboard bridge doors using hoses.

At 1550, the fire was reported to be out. At 1600, the West Baton Rouge Fire Department arrived at the docked vessel and confirmed that the fire was extinguished.

Investigators from the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discovered extensive damage throughout the bridge, including significant smoke and thermal damage. There was no damage noted to any of the lower decks in the superstructure. The navigation systems, communication systems, and alarm systems were damaged beyond repair.

1.3.1 Video Footage The vessel operator provided investigators with video footage from a closed-circuit camera positioned on the starboard side of the bridge, forward. The camera faced inboard and aft and showed the entire bridge space except for areas directly behind equipment and cabinets.

One end of the communications table was visible, but the rest of the table extended behind a bank of cabinets. The time stamp on the video was 8 hours ahead of the local time. At 1527:54 local time, the footage showed an orange flash immediately followed by a puff of smoke by the communications table. Following the initial flash, the video showed smoke rising up and increasing in volume and thickness.

At 1529:04, the footage showed another orange flash in the same area as the first one, followed by an object on fire, which flew from the area of the flash to the starboard side of the bridge, where it landed on the deck in front of the lifejacket locker and continued to burn.

In the video, the fire on the communications table continued to grow. The visibility on the bridge decreased rapidly, and the camera lens became covered in ash and started to deform at 1536:26, preventing any further view of the fire within the bridge.

The ATF origin and cause report for the fire stated that ”the cause of this fire was determined to be an energetic event [explosion] involving a lithium ion battery located on the navigation [communication] desk.” The report detailed the examination of the other electronic devices, including a computer and a radio, on the communications table as well as all six electrical outlets that provided power to the desk.

While all of the electronic devices and the outlets sustained fire damage, the ATF report ruled them out as potential sources of the fire. The ATF report also noted that there was a second explosion from within the ensuing fire on the communications table.

Posting this NTSB report on $3,000,000 worth of damage to an 800’ steel cargo ship.

From a single lithium battery device.

The next time someone pushes EVs and their “safety” features, this should be a reminder that perhaps that day will come, but that the day for EV perfection is NOT today.

The closed-circuit camera on the bridge captured an orange flash immediately followed by a puff of smoke in the area of the communications table where batteries and chargers for hand-held radios assigned to the bridge were located. Following the flash, smoke and flames were seen growing and expanding as combustible material was consumed by the fire. The ATF concluded that the fire was caused by one of the lithium-ion battery cells on the communications table exploding.

S-Trust at anchor following the casualty.

Photos from the bridge closed-circuit camera showing (1) a second explosion occurs, (2) an object is propelled on fire into the air (circled), and (3) the object, still on fire, landing on the floor. (Source: Stalwart Management Ltd)

The S-Trust carried 20 of these radios for communication during vessel operations. The batteries and chargers were stored on the communications table on the bridge. Fortunately, the crew managed to extinguish the fire, and no injuries were reported.

The two radios assigned to the bridge were a Motorola DP4400e radio, which used a lithium-ion battery, and a Motorola GP328 radio, which used a nickel-metal hydride battery. A crewmember informed investigators he believed that the batteries for those radios were not charging the day of the fire.

Motorola is (used to be?) a first class engineering organization. Not sure if Motorola cheaped out and bought substandard batteries or if it was the luck of the draw, but one thing is certain.

The NTSB approved the radios and chargers as being seaworthy for this use. And they still had a serious fault.

I am agreed that nothing is 100%, but I also understand that some technologies have inherent dangers.

Such as lithium batteries.

And, having worked with multiple Asian companies on warranty work in the US, seeing the process in action on how products are designed, produced and delivered I am less trusting than I used to be.

Besides, anything in a sailing vessel or aircraft has special rules for approval for use.

And we see a failure here, as well as the scuba boat fire off Santa Cruz Island, makes me wonder how soon they will take action.

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