Resolve Marine mobilized firefighting and salvage resources to Jacksonville, Florida (USA) in response to an onboard car carrier fire. The 183 foot (32 meters) car carrier had completed loading of approximately 2,420 vehicles on 11 decks when a fire broke out in one of the cargo holds. Resolve Marine immediately mobilized firefighting response packages, and salvage teams from their OPA 90 response depots located across the southeast United States. Responding under OPA 90 SMFF Resource Provider as the name responder under the car carriers’ Vessel Response Plan (VRP), Resolve Marine immediately liaised with the Unified Command/Incident Command Center working 24-hour fire cessation operations while implementing precautions to prevent harbor contamination and safeguard the local marine environment.
Resolve Marine’s rapid response was facilitated by activating a comprehensive and strategically placed inventory of OPA 90 response equipment from Mobile-AL, Fort Lauderdale-FL, Jacksonville-FL, Charleston-SC, and New Orleans-LA depots. Teams debunkered 1,494 metric tonnes of Heavy Fuel Oil and 122.4 metric tonnes of Diesel Oil preventing an environmental disaster in a busy seaport. Cargo removal operations removed an estimated 1,347 damaged and 1,073 non-damaged vehicles from the car carrier before the vessel’s towage to Aliaga, Turkey for recycling. At the peak of the response, Resolve Marine mobilized over 40 personnel that included on-site salvage masters, naval architects, salvage officers, firefighters, and salvage technicians to carry out the 24-hour operations.