On Monday night, an explosion occurred on a river cruise ship docked within the middle of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
2 hundred folks have been evacuated from the ship, and a lot of them inhaled an excessive amount of smoke. The explosion occurred within the vessel’s battery room, after which a fireplace broke out.
Hearth and Explosion Onboard Viking Gymir
After visitors had simply launched into the Viking Gymir in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, they needed to shortly go away the ship once more after an explosion occurred within the ship’s battery room.
The explosion occurred round 18:30. All 200 visitors had already been assembled within the ship’s important lounge for a welcome briefing, making evacuation comparatively simple.
Viking Cruises acknowledged to Cruise Hive, “We will affirm that there was a minor incident on board Viking Gymir in Amsterdam on July 25. All visitors and crew are secure and the ship is absolutely operable and navigable. Right now, we count on that each one future departures will proceed as scheduled.”
Viking Gymir, docked within the metropolis middle of Amsterdam when the explosion occurred, shortly sounded the alarms. The native hearth brigade, ambulances, and different first responders shortly arrived on the scene because the explosion was adopted by hearth in the primary engine room.
Though all visitors managed to depart the vessel with out challenge, some crew members did endure from smoke inhalation and underwent monitoring by medical personnel.
After being on the dock for about an hour, visitors have been introduced onboard the river ship River Diamond, moored subsequent to Viking Gymir. Company have been later delivered to Viking Rolf for dinner. After dinner, Viking organized transport for visitors to the Schiphol Airport Hilton resort, the place Viking would temporary them.
What will probably be occurring subsequent is unclear. Native authorities have been busy investigating the vessel to make sure there are not any poisonous fumes onboard earlier than the crew is allowed to reboard the ship. It appears unlikely Viking Gymir will probably be returning to service this summer time season.
Viking Gymir is among the latest river ships for the world’s largest river cruise operator, Viking Cruises. The vessel was one of many eight new river ships christened by Viking in January this yr.
Viking Gymir has a hybrid propulsion system consisting of three diesel engines and a large-capacity battery pack. In response to early experiences, it’s the massive capability battery pack the place the explosion and hearth occurred, which might clarify the cautious nature wherein the Dutch hearth brigade is coping with the vessel.
Robust Summer time For River Cruises
Though Viking Cruises remains to be ordering river and ocean-going ships at a report tempo, the corporate operates greater than 80 ships worldwide; 2022 is to this point not the perfect yr for river cruising. The hearth onboard Viking Gymir is already the third incident with one of many firm’s ships this yr.
Simply two weeks in the past, the Viking Hermod collided with a cargo vessel throughout a cruise between Basel and Amsterdam; the cruise ship sustained minor injury in the course of the accident, which was brought about because of the cargo vessel immediately altering course.
In Might this yr, Viking Aegir hit a bridge pillar on the Danube River in Slovakia, injuring eleven folks.
In addition to accidents, Viking river ships need to take care of much more important issues as river ranges in Europe are dropping to record-low ranges. A heatwave has lowered elements of the river Rhine, western Europe’s most necessary waterway, to the bottom seasonal ranges in at the least 15 years.
Whereas river ships will nonetheless have the ability to function, it would seemingly embody visitors having to alter ships when the water ranges change into impassable. On this case, the cruise line would transport visitors from one vessel to a distinct ship that’s additional up or down the river the place water ranges are nonetheless deep sufficient to function.
It’s not simply river ships experiencing issues with low-water ranges in Europe’s rivers. Earlier this week, Holland America Line knowledgeable visitors that as a consequence of low water within the North Sea Canal between Ijmuiden and Amsterdam, the cruise line had moved embarkation for a Norway cruise onboard MS Rotterdam to its namesake metropolis.
