Cargo vessel fire at east China shipyard kills 25

A fire that broke out at a Chinese shipyard resulted in the tragic loss of 25 lives on Thursday. The blaze occurred aboard a foreign cargo vessel undergoing repairs at the Qingdao Beihai shipyard, a state-owned facility in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao. According to state-run Xinhua, the fire ignited around 11:15am local time during routine maintenance work.

Out of the 42 people on board the vessel, 12 were successfully evacuated, while five suffered injuries and were hospitalized. The remaining eight individuals perished in the fire. Xinhua released a photograph of the scene, which identified the ship as the Ocean Melody, a 20-year-old dry bulk carrier registered under Liberia and operated by Yuyangkunpeng Shanghai Ship Mgm, with Huili Shipping Co Ltd as the registered owner.

The vessel had been at the Qingdao shipyard since August 31, 2022, and remained there until the incident. Chinese President Xi Jinping urged for intensified search-and-rescue operations, a thorough investigation, and accountability measures. The Qingdao Beihai shipyard operates under the control of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), one of the world's leading shipbuilders. CSSC stated that a fire erupted on a foreign-flagged cargo ship during ongoing maintenance work at the shipyard of its Qingdao subsidiary.

CSSC pledged that the company and relevant authorities have mobilized resources to handle the situation at the scene, and all related efforts are underway. The company describes itself as China's principal naval shipbuilder and the largest designer and builder of ships and offshore equipment. In 2022, a recruitment notice on the CSSC-owned Qingdao unit's website revealed that the shipyard possessed an annual shipbuilding capacity of 3 million deadweight tons and could repair up to 212 vessels annually.