Ship explosion in Sandefjord

Sandefjord, Norway

A tanker berthed at Olean Scandinavia AS, a chemical plant near Sandefjord, exploded on Tuesday, causing a large area to be evacuated.

The explosion took place in the anterior portion of the cargo hold, causing the ship to lean precariously. On Tuesday it looked in danger of capsizing.

So far, there have been no reports of anybody getting hurt in the explosion.

Bellona, an environmental group, took action in June against Olean, which was storing up to 30,000 tons of illegal hazardous waste. The ship that exploded was sent to pick up some of this waste. However, “It is too early to speculate what went wrong,” said the captain of the ship to Aftenposten. Experts reached Sandefjord early this morning and will try to determine what caused the explosion.

“[The ship] was in good condition…There are a lot of older boats that travel with more dangerous products than this,” said CEO Jan Henning Legreid of DVS Norway to Aftenposten, who says the most important thing is that no one was injured by the explosion. DVS Norge owns and stores the waste at the Olean plant in Sandefjord.