Fire emergency in Greece on Anek’s ferry΄El Venizelos’ – ΄ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΟΣ ΒΕΝΙΖΕΛΟΣ΄: ΜΙΑ ΑΚΟΜΗ ΠΥΡΚΑΓΙΑ ΞΕΣΠΑΣΕ ΣΕ ΟΧΗΜΑΤΑΓΩΓΟ ΠΛΟΙΟ ΤΩΝ ΑΝΕΚ LINES

In the night between August the 28th and the 29th 2018 the ship Eleftherios Venizelos, another ferry from Anek Lines, during its travel from Piraeus to Crete with 875 passengers and 141 crew on board, was hit by a serious fire in the garage area, so much that the Captain was forced to declare general emergency and abandonment of the ship.

The emergency operations were not easy and implied the intervent of two firefighting tug boats, ten tenders, 48 firefighters and two emergency teams, as the fire was very quickly expanding from the lower decks and heavy black smoke was inclosing the ship.

The dynamic of the new accident is similar to the disaster of the Norman Atlantic, which as this one, was operating under the flag of the Greek company ANEK: a vehicle parked on board caught fire so that from 12am the board started to send emergency signals to get help from the Coast Guard.

After we assisted dozens of passengers who suffered a devastating experience onboard of the Anek’s ferry Norman Atlantic in the nights of the 28/29 December 2014 where so many lost their life, an all others suffered for their personal safety and for the losses of their personal belongings and for which we already submitted to the Civil Court of Bari our law suit against Anek and Visemar (see our web page on such case: https://giustiziapernormanatlantic.wordpress.com/), we face another case with a fire that broke out in the car deck of a ferry.

The emergency operations on the Eleftherios Venizelos went on during all night and the ship was at the end escorted back into Piraeus and all the passengers were disambarked only during the morning of the 29 August.

Media sources report that the ship has had many problems operating so much that since 2014 it has a discontinuous use, with some short-term rentals (including one to the Greek government for the transportation of migrants from the islands) and sporadic income in service as a replace of other ships Anek stopped for repairs. This raises questions in relation to safety of the ship. These questions will be adressed by with a specific complaint we will file to authorities that have already opened an investigation to find out the causes of the fire and the reasons for the lack of containment of the flames in the garage by the drenching system, providing all the trial expert’s reports on Norman Atlantic about critical issues on fires in Ro/Ro ship’s garage open decks.

Cars from Deck 2 seems NOT RECOVERABLE

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Here are the cars as landed today 04/20/2016 from deck 2 of the Norman Atlantic: while the heavy trucks came out virtually unscathed from the lowest deck 1, the cars are reduced to a heap of blackened metal sheets, stained glass, plastic affected by heat, completely mildewed upholstery and interior soaked beyond repair of smoke, dioxins and mildew.

Unfortunately, the expectations of many passengers and our clients to recover their belongings and objects – even if only of sentimental value, seems to be irretrievably lost and gone up in smoke together with the ship. At a first sight, everything that was in the cars and in the trunks is moldy and smoked trash.

Tomorrow they will complete the unloading of all vehicles and storage of the cars in a warehouse, in order to permit assessment of the owners and Anek on the recoverability of the cars. All cars pulled off by the ship today, in our opinion, is no recoverable under normal conditions, since the mold and the smell of dioxin is so strong that no one can enter the car without protective masks.

In the coming days we will update our clients via personal email on the outside condition of each car stored in the warehouse and on the evaluation and Anek and our expert on the recoverability of the cars and of the personal belongings.

NOTE THAT it will also be possible to transfer cars in Greece in order to collect the vehicles directly to the destination port.

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Ecco le autovetture sbarcate oggi 20.04.2016 dal ponte 2 della Norman Atlantic: mentre i TIR sono usciti praticamente indenni dal ponte più basso, le auto sono ridotte ad un ammasso di lamiere annerite, vetri macchiati, plastica intaccata dal calore, tappezzeria completamente ammuffita e interni intrisi in modo irrimediabile di fumi, diossina e muffa.

Putroppo le aspettative dei tanti passeggeri e nostri clienti di recuperare i propri effetti personali e oggetti anche se di valore solo affettivo, pare essere irrimediabilmente perduta ed andata in fumo assieme alla nave. Praticamente tutto quanto era nelle auto e nei portabagagli è ammuffito e affumicato.

Domani si porteranno a termine le operazioni di scarico delle vetture e stoccaggio in un magazzino, al fine di consentire la valutazione da parte dei proprietari e di Anek sulla recuperabilità o meno delle vetture. Di tutte le vetture tirate fuori dalla nave oggi, a nostro giudizio, nessuna è recuperabile a condizioni normali, essendo la muffa e l’odore di diossina talmente forte da non poter entrare nelle auto senza le maschere di protezione.

Nei prossimi giorni aggiorneremo i nostri clienti tramite mail personale sulle condizione delle singole autovetture depositate nel magazzino e sulla valutazione di Anek e del nostro corrispondente sulla recuperabilità o meno delle vetture e del contenuto.

NOTA BENE sarà possibile anche trasferire le autovetture in Grecia per consentire il ritiro direttamente al porto di destinazione

Unloading of the cars

Unloading of cars from the bridge 2 can hopefully start Wednesday 20 or Thursday, April 21, but the final confirmation will be announced in the coming days.
 The ship is under criminal seizure and therefore, without an authorization from the Court of Bari, passengers are not allowed to go onboard.
 The vehicles, once downloaded, will be temporarily parked in a warehouse and be available for the delivery to the owners, if they are considered recoverable.
All details, name and passport / identity card, of the subjects that will collect the vehicle, must be provided in advance in order to sign a delivery receipt.
 We will return with more details when everything will be ready for unloading and delivery.
The vehicle keys can be handed over to the agent of Anek to Bari:

Spamat snc
Corso A de Tullio 1
Banchina Massi
Bari  70122
Italy
 
Tel: 0039 0805213403-2460249
Mobile 348 6562093
 
e-mail spamatbari@spamat.t
web: www.spamat.it

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Lo scarico degli autoveicoli dal ponte 2 si spera possa iniziare Mercoledì 20 o Giovedì 21, ma la conferma finale verrà comunicata nei prossimi giorni. La nave è sotto sequestro penale e pertanto, in assenza di una autorizzazione da parte del Tribunale di Bari, ai passeggeri non è permesso accedere a bordo. I veicoli, una volta scaricati, saranno temporaneamente parcheggiati in un magazzino e messi a disposizione dei proprietari per la consegna, ove siano considerati recuperabili. Tutti i dettagli, nominativo e passaporto/carta d’identità, delle persone che ritireranno il veicolo devono essere forniti prima del ritiro e dovrà essere sottoscritta una ricevuta di consegna. Ritorneremo in argomento con ulteriori dettagli quando sarà tutto pronto per lo sbarco e la consegna. Le chiavi dei veicoli possono essere consegnate all’agente di Anek a Bari:
 
Spamat snc
Corso A de Tullio 1
Banchina Massi
Bari  70122
Italy
 
Tel: 0039 0805213403-2460249
Mobile 348 6562093
 
e-mail spamatbari@spamat.t
web: www.spamat.it
 

Unloading vehicles deck 1-2 – sbarco dei mezzi ponte 1-2

Burnt-out cars are seen on a deck of the Norman Atlantic multi-deck car-and-truck ferry docked at Brindisi harbour, after a fire broke out on it off the coast of Greece, January 2, 2015. Tug boats hauled the burnt-out hulk of the ferry into the southern Italian port on Friday, opening the way for an investigation into the cause of the blaze that killed at least 11 people. The ferry caught fire off Greece’s Adriatic Coast on December 28, 2014 whilst on a voyage to Italy. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca (ITALY – Tags: DISASTER MARITIME) – RTR4JWQD

The italian authorities have authorized unloading of vehicles from decks n. 1 and n. 2 of the Norman Atlantic: those in charge in the operations have raised the ramps to access bridges n. 1 and n. 2 and over this week will be prepared suitable lighting to ensure safe access to decks and the inspection by Harbour Master / Experts of the Court.

The program is to unload firstly the trucks by bridge n.1 (less affected by heat and flame) and today the first heavy trucks came out – after more than one year – from the cargo hold; As long as the lifting of the ramps goes smoothly and that it is guaranteed safe access, it is expected to unload all trucks in the week between 4 and 8 April, and then unload the vehicles on bridge #2 in the week between 11 and 15 April.

Further details will follow regarding the carry out of operations. Vehicle owners will have to provide the keys in order to unload vehicles from the ship. It has been planned to park the vehicles in a proper site, pending further agreements with the owners for their possible recovery and an inspection on general conditions of vehicles and personal belongings inside of it, as, even where not destroyed by the flames, have being exposed to extreme conditions during and immediately after the fire, and then closed in unhealthy environments for months.

We therefore ask our clients wich had a vehicle along with them, to provide us by express delivery with the keys of the vehicles and a copy of the registration certificate, by sending all to: Agenzia Legale -Viale Aldo Moro n. 11 / n – 00054 Fiumicino (Rome) Italy

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Le autorità Italiane hanno autorizzato lo sbarco dei veicoli dai ponti n. 1 e n. 2: gli incaricati alle operazioni di smassamento della M/n Norman Atlantic hanno sollevato le rampe per accedere ai ponti n. 1 e n. 2 e nel corso di questa settimana sarà predisposta idonea illuminazione per garantire un accesso sicuro ai ponti e l’ispezione da parte della Capitaneria di Porto/Periti del Tribunale.

Il programma è di scaricare per primi i Tir dal ponte n. 1. (quello meno interessato da fiamme e calore) ed in data odierna i primi automezzi pesanti sono usciti dopo oltre un anno dalla stiva della nave; A condizione che il sollevamento delle rampe avvenga senza problemi e che sia garantito l’accesso in sicurezza, si prevede di scaricare i camion nella settimana tra il 4 e l’8 Aprile, per poi scaricare i veicoli dal ponte n. 2 nella settimana tra l’11 e il 15 Aprile.

I successivi dettagli seguiranno con riguardo allo svolgimento delle operazioni. I proprietari dei veicoli dovranno fornire le chiavi al fine di scaricare i veicoli dalla nave. È stato previsto di parcheggiare i veicoli in luogo a ciò individuato in attesa di ulteriori accordi con i proprietari per il loro recupero e una valutazione sulle condizioni dei mezzi e degli effetti personali al loro interno, che anche ove non distrutti dalle fiamme sono stati esposti a condizioni estreme durante e subito dopo l’incendio, e poi chiusi in ambienti malsani per mesi.

Chiediamo pertanto ai ns. clienti che avevano un veicolo al loro seguito di fornirci tramite corriere espresso le chiavi degli automezzi e copia della carta di circolazione, inviando tutto ad Agenzia Legale -Viale Aldo Moro n. 11/n – 00054 Fiumicino (Rome) Italy