According to the Associated Press on December 31**, the U.S. Coast Guard said on the 30th that as a precautionary measure, a large cargo ship with a fire in its cargo hold was ordered to stay about 3 kilometers from a port in Alaska, while trying to extinguish the fire.
According to the report, the local coast guard issued a press release saying that the 19 crew members of the "Genius Star 11" merchant ship carrying a large number of lithium-ion batteries and sailing from Vietnam across the Pacific Ocean to San Diego in the United States were not injured. A spokesman for the shipowner, Taiwan Huiyang Shipping Group, issued a statement saying that the ship's No. 1 cargo hold was held on the 25th**. Fearing that something would happen, the crew injected carbon dioxide into the cabin and sealed it off.
The image of the "Genius Star 11" taken on the 29th released by the U.S. Coast Guard. (Associated Press).
The crew on board reported the fire to the Coast Guard in the early morning of the 28th. The Coast Guard diverted the 125-meter-long cargo ship to Holland Harbor. Holland Harbor is one of the busiest fishing ports in the United States, located in Unaraska, in the Aleutian Islands, about 1,287 kilometers southwest of Anchorage.
Major Mike Salerno of the Coast Guard said in an email to the Associated Press that the ship arrived on the 29th, but, in order to "reduce the risks associated with burning lithium-ion batteries or toxic gases from fires," orders had been placed not to approach the coast.
The shipowners said they had not found any oil spills related to the incident. The coast guard said that a team of marine firefighting experts evaluated the ship on the evening of the 29th and found no signs of structural deformation outside the cargo hold.
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