Container ship fires are treated by the industry as rare, catastrophic events, when the evidence suggests they are becoming a routine and worsening cost of doing business. This insight examines the scale and frequency of dangerous goods fires, and why undeclared and misdeclared cargo remains the single largest cause.
This insight is drawn from Thetius and Tigris Systems report, Before the Fire: Dangerous Goods Safety and the Visibility Gap. It looks at why undeclared and misdeclared cargo remains the leading cause of ship fires, and how frequent and costly these incidents have become. The report draws on industry data and interviews with professionals across the cargo process, including shipping executives, terminal operators and dangerous goods safety advisers, to explain why the industry keeps seeing the same failures repeat, even as fires grow more frequent and more costly year on year.
Shipping lines state that a core problem is limited visibility into what shippers are actually sending them. But more visibility raises the question of what happens when a problem is only discovered after the vessel has sailed. If the information shows that a container has been wrongly declared or stowed, fixing it could mean diverting the vessel, restowing hundreds of containers, delaying the schedule and using more fuel. The issue is not only whether the carrier can see the risk, but whether it is prepared to act once it does.
According to the World Shipping Council (WSC), undeclared and misdeclared goods are the leading cause of ship fires.
In March 2018, the Maersk Honam caught fire in the Arabian Sea, likely caused by the spontaneous decomposition of dangerous goods cargo, which spread through the vessel, forced the crew to abandon ship, and resulted in five crew deaths. The cargo had been accepted and stowed in accordance with IMDG requirements, and despite that, five sailors lost their lives. This tragedy highlights how inadequate today’s codes, processes, and documentation are at effectively preventing fire.
That fire was not an isolated incident. In 2024, there were 250 fire incidents, an increase of 20% year on year and the highest number in a decade. Fire and explosion were also the second-largest cause of total vessel losses during the year, while more than 100 vessels had been lost to fires over the previous decade.
WSC’s 2024 dataset covered 77,688 inspected units across seven ports, a small fraction of the roughly 250 million containers transported globally that year. Of those inspected, 11.39% had deficiencies, although the sample is not representative of all shipments.
According to the TT Club, a major container ship fire occurs roughly every 60 days.
For carriers, accepting cargo involves accepting responsibility for assessing the accompanying information. A large container vessel might carry thousands of containers and generate a huge number of declarations, safety data sheets (SDS) and supporting documents. If something is missed and it results in an incident, the resulting financial and legal consequences can be serious.
Download ‘Before the Fire’ to read more about the true scale of dangerous goods fires across the industry.
