The car carrier (intended for sale) will be towed by the ocean-going tug Abeille Liberte into the port of Le Havre

Grimaldi Group's Grande Roma car carrier suffered a power outage due to a fire in its engine room while in Northern Europe, off the coast of France. The company's headquarters in Naples reported that the flames broke out inside the 5,379 CEU car carrier (built in 2003) at around 10:00 PM local time on October 25th while it was transiting the English Channel. The crew promptly vented CO2 into the engine room and began cooling the bulkheads. The captain reported that there were no injuries or pollution resulting from this incident.

A tugboat, the Abeille Liberte

Since the vessel was left without propulsion and therefore unmanageable the captain requested assistance from a tugboat the Abeille Liberte which attached a towline at 9:36 a.m. Sunday and will accompany the vessel to the nearby port of Le Havre.

Related : Collision for Two Grimaldi Ships in Igoumenitsa Port (VIDEO)

The Grande Roma, a ship soon to be removed from the Grimaldi fleet due to its sale, departed the port of Antwerp last Friday (October 24) bound for Jebel Ali, in the United Arab Emirates, where it was due to arrive on November 25. Grimaldi Euromed stated that it has arranged all necessary assistance for the crew, the vessel, and the cargo in Le Havre.

.Removed from the Grimaldi fleet

Databases show that since it entered service (in 2003) until today this car carrier had never been detained in port for safety reasons. According to Tradewinds, the last inspection carried out at the beginning of this month in Antwerp had highlighted some critical issues regarding fire safety, with six deficiencies detected by inspectors from the local maritime authority.

 GRANDE ROMA

The current position of GRANDE ROMA is at North East Atlantic Ocean reported 3 min ago by AIS. The vessel arrived at the port of Le Havre, France on Oct 27, 20:35 UTC. The vessel GRANDE ROMA (IMO 9247936, MMSI 247086800) is a Vehicles Carrier built in 2003 (22 years old) and currently sailing under the flag of Italy.

Source : Shipping Italy 

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