Filipino crew members evacuated from burning container ship arrive in Halifax

HALIFAX -- A statement from the Embassy of the Philippines in Ottawa says 17 Filipino crew members have been evacuated from a Halifax-bound container ship that has been burning off Canada's East Coast since Jan. 3.

The statement says the seafarers from the Yantian Express arrived in Halifax on Monday and were making arrangements with their fleet manager to return home.

A photo from the embassy shows members of the crew in a room with Elizabeth Eustaquio-Domondon, the Philippine's honorary vice-consul in Halifax.

The embassy says members of the local Filipino community met the seafarers and provided them with food and other necessities.

The entire 22-member crew of the Yantian Express boarded a rescue tug after the 320-metre ship caught fire about 1,900 kilometres southwest of Halifax.

A spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard says two more firefighting tugs, the Atlantic Enterprise out of New York and the Union Sovereign out of Rotterdam, N.Y., have been dispatched to help put out the fire aboard the Yantian Express.

On Monday, Chief Petty Officer 3rd Class Joshua Canup said the ship remained about 1,700 kilometres southeast of Halifax.

Two tugs have been on the scene for days, and the German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd says the fire involving multiple containers is "widely contained and under control."

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  The Embassy of the Philippines in Ottawa says 17 Filipino crew members that were evacuated from a Halifax-bound container ship have arrived in Halifax, where they were provided with food and other necessities. (Embassy of the Philippines)

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  The container ship Yantian Express is shown in a handout photo from Hapag-Lloyd. Crews working to extinguish a fire that's been burning for four days aboard a large container ship off Canada's east coast are facing some big challenges, an expert in offshore safety says. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Hapag-Lloyd)