The passenger Ro-Ro ship Med Star caught fire in Port of Tripoli, Lebanon. The vessel was preparing to leave the ferry terminal en route to Turkey, but the main deck was engulfed by flames. The fire started by friction in the electric system and quickly extended to the whole deck. The crew reported about the accident and at the scene were dispatched several firefighting teams, harbor tugs and navy forces. The fire was extinguished after almost whole day of firefighting and caused sufficient damages to the ship’s hull, superstructure and engineering. Fortunately during the accident there were no passengers on board and the local authorities reported that there are no injuries.

The investigation for the root cause of the accident is under way. During the fire there were no other affected vessels, but the traffic in the port and exclusive economic zone was hampered during firefighting due to safety reasons.

The passenger Ro-Ro ship Med Star (IMO: 7392531) has overall length of 79.00 m, moulded beam of 12.00 m and maximum draft of 4.30 m. The deadweight of the ferry is 378 DWT and the gross tonnage is 1,786 GRT. The vessel was built in 1976 by Hellenic General Enterprise shipyard in Athens, Greece. The passenger Ro-Ro ship Med Star is owned and operated by the Lebanese company Global Management and Trading.