“It is important not to mistake luck for emergency preparedness. Next time, we might not be as lucky.” - TSB Chair Kathy Fox
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has issued two safety concerns following the loss of containers and fire on board the container vessel ZIM Kingston off Vancouver Island nearly three years ago.
The first safety concern relates to the risk of a phenomenon called parametric rolling, which led to the loss of containers.
The second concern addresses gaps in Canada’s preparedness to respond to marine emergencies.
On October 21, 2021, while waiting for an anchorage to become available, the ZIM Kingston was drifting outside the Juan de Fuca Strait, with 21 crew members on board, when it experienced a series of severe side-to-side rolls about 27 nautical miles south of Ucluelet. The rolling caused 109 containers to go overboard, and damaged others.
About 36 hours later, while the vessel was anchored off Victoria a fire broke out in a damaged container that held dangerous goods. The fire spread to five nearby containers; two held xanthates, and three held tires and other consumer items. The fire burned for five days before it was extinguished.
Model testing conducted during the TSB investigation determined that the ZIM Kingston experienced parmetric rolling– which occurs when sea conditions converge with vessel-specific factors in a precise way, resulting in dangerous side-to-side motion. The forces created by the vessel’s extreme motions were the precipitating factor for the container loss.
The investigation found that the risk of parametric rolling could have been identified using guidance material that is generally available to industry; however, this material was not on board the ZIM Kingston.
This occurrence highlights the challenges Canada faces when dealing with marine emergencies that go beyond the response capacity of the vessel’s crew. Unlike the United States, Canada doesn’t require pre-arranged plans for emergency response or marine salvage. In addition, the Canadian Coast Guard does not directly participate in marine fire response, nor does it have fire suppression capabilities to directly respond to a vessel fire. In this occurrence, it was fortunate that the vessel’s manager had made pre-arrangements for emergency response and it was fortunate that were there two suitably equipped vessels nearby at the time of the fire.