Huge clouds of smoke billow out of a container ship at Napier Port on 18 December, 2020. Photo: Supplied / James Hooker
A Napier engineer whose company started a huge fire at Napier Port about two years will have to pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines.
A Singapore-registered ship Kota Bahagia burst into flames on 1 December 2020.
Sole director of KR Tong Engineering, Kerry Tong, was sentenced at the Napier District Court this week.
When the fire broke out, Tong's employees were gas cutting on board the vessel.
The fire was caused by hot metal particles, expelled by the gas cutting, falling into the lower hold and igniting the material below the decks where the workers were gas cutting.
In a statement, Maritime NZ's regulatory operations manager John Maxwell said Tong failed to ensure the company had available for use, and used, appropriate resources and processes to minimise the risk of fire.
"As director of the company, he needed to ensure his people worked in a way to keep themselves and those in the vicinity of the work were kept safe.
"He needed to ensure his company acquired and kept up to date with the standard and guidance required relating to safety procedures with hot works.
"He didn't do so," John Maxwell said.
When starting the gas cutting, Maritime NZ said Tong should have ensured there were resources and processes in place to complete a thorough safety checks around the site of the hot works, ensure a full site examination was undertaken and a risk assessment was undertaken, ensure a firewatcher was in place on-board around the appropriate areas of the vessel and made sure fire blankets were available and were used effectively.
Tong was ordered to pay a fine of $48,000, costs of $2500 and $4000 emotional harm reparations to the victim.
