FIRE BROUGHT UNDER CONTROL ON SHIP OFF CROATIAN

UNCLAS ZAGREB 000094 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SCE EBB/OES BUDAPEST FOR SAM KOTIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHSA EWWT HR SUBJECT: FIRE BROUGHT UNDER CONTROL ON SHIP OFF CROATIAN COAST ¶1. (U) Croatia's Ministry of Sea, Transport, and Infrastructure told emboff today that the fire on the Und Adrijatic, a Turkish cargo ship, is under control. Five tugboats (3 Croatian and 2 Italian) continue to work to cool the ship's hull. When temperatures are lowered sufficiently, a Dutch team of specialists, asked by the ship's Turkish owner to assist, will board the ship to extinguish any remaining interior fires and further stabilize the ship. The Croatian response team believes the danger of the ship sinking or releasing a significant amount of fuel or other hazardous material has been averted. They also expect to complete all necessary stabilization procedures on site, so they will not have to tow the ship to an interim "safe harbor" before towing it to a repair yard. ¶2. (U) The ship was carrying 200 trucks and 11 tons of hazardous materials from Istanbul to Trieste when it caught fire on February 6 about 15 nautical miles off Croatia's northwest coast. Overnight, winds pushed the ship to within 5 nautical miles of the coast, but it has since moved back to about 10 nautical miles out. All passengers and crew members were rescued from the ship and taken to Italy. ¶3. (U) Croatia's Ministry of Sea, Transport, and Infrastructure is coordinating the response operation. Tatjana Krilic, principal inspector for safety of navigation and maritime environment at the Ministry, told us that if the response to the crisis showed that their disaster contingency plan worked. She said if the incident had been worse, more resources would have been needed to control it, but the contingency plan worked in that all necessary Croatian, Slovenian, and Italian entities were notified, and Italy and Slovenia responded with offers of assistance. ¶4. (U) COMMENT: If, as now appears likely, the Und Adrijatic is salvaged without causing significant ecological damage, the incident could benefit Croatia in the long run by drawing attention to the risk of a more serious event in the Adriatic and the need to improve Croatia's capacity to respond to such an incident. BRADTKE