{"id":893,"date":"2026-10-03T11:32:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T11:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/philippine-coast-guard-stands-down-a-45-hour-fire-on-molasses-tanker-gindara\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T11:33:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T11:33:49","slug":"philippine-coast-guard-stands-down-a-45-hour-fire-on-molasses-tanker-gindara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/philippine-coast-guard-stands-down-a-45-hour-fire-on-molasses-tanker-gindara\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippine Coast Guard stands down a 45-hour fire on molasses tanker Gindara"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABS-CBN reported on Saturday, 3 October, that the fire on the motor tanker Gindara at Calaca City, Batangas, had been declared out after 45 hours. The Philippine Coast Guard\u2019s first statements, carried on Thursday by GMA, the Inquirer, Philstar and Daily Tribune, and written through on Saturday morning by Marine Insight, put the start in the engine room on Wednesday, 30 September, while the ship was at the Balayan Distillery Inc. berth in Barangay Talisay. The tanker was carrying, and on the police account unloading, molasses. Twenty of 22 crew were accounted for and safe. Two were injured. The cause remains under investigation. No IMO number has been published in those primaries.<\/p>\n

This is a alongside-berth engine-room fire that took the better part of two days to close, not a Hormuz projectile and not a completed marine casualty file. The useful facts for a DPA and a terminal operator are the duration, the cargo, the two hospital cases, the mix of city firefighters, coast-guard boats and harbour tugs, and the fact that smoke was still showing after the bridge and superstructure were reported clear. Do not treat Saturday\u2019s \u201cdeclared out\u201d line as a root-cause finding or as proof that the cargo and the jetty are undamaged.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s fire, Saturday\u2019s stand-down<\/h2>\n

Daily Tribune, quoting police, timed the fire at about 1600 on 30 September aboard Gindara, registered to Fast Guy Logistic Corporation, while the ship was unloading molasses at the Balayan Distillery jetty. The Inquirer, using the Coast Guard District Southern Tagalog account, described the same start as Wednesday night and the ship as docked at the distillery port. Stay with both clocks: afternoon on the police tape, night on the first PCG write-through. Neither source published a quantity of molasses, a tank plan, or an IMO.<\/p>\n

PCG said the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office reported a burning tanker. Coast Guard Sub-Station Lemery went to the port with the Bureau of Fire Protection Calaca City. Marine Insight, citing the same PCG sequence, named two harbour tugs on the firefighting line: Motor Tugboat Sedar 8 and Motor Tugboat Polaris Queen. Further PCG personnel came from Coast Guard District Southern Tagalog, Sub-Station Balayan, Sub-Station Batangas City and Coast Guard Medical Station\u2013Southern Tagalog. The Maritime Safety Investigation Unit was sent for an initial investigation. BRP Malapascua, MRRV-4403, a 44-metre multi-role response vessel, was deployed to augment firefighting and response.<\/p>\n

The last PCG situation report in Thursday\u2019s copy said there was no visible fire at the bridge and superstructure, but smoke remained visible. That is the state ABS-CBN\u2019s Saturday piece closes. Forty-five hours from a mid-afternoon start on 30 September runs into the afternoon of 2 October. Saturday\u2019s publication is the stand-down, not a new ignition. Marine Insight\u2019s Saturday 1106 UTC write-through still had the Thursday smoke line and still had the cause unknown. Treat Saturday as \u201cfire declared out,\u201d not as \u201cinvestigation closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two injured, cargo still molasses, cause still open<\/h2>\n

PCG\u2019s crew count is consistent across GMA, Daily Tribune and Marine Insight: 22 on board, 20 safe, two injured and referred for treatment. One crew member was admitted to Metro Lemery Medical Center for further treatment and monitoring. The other sustained an inhalational injury, was treated at Metro Calaca Hospital, and later left against medical advice. Daily Tribune\u2019s police account called the injuries minor and said first aid was given on scene. Brief both: two hospital cases, one remaining under monitoring in the Thursday statements, one inhalational injury who declined continued admission. No fatality has been reported. No crew names have been published in the primaries used here.<\/p>\n

The cargo is molasses \u2014 sugarcane syrup in the Philstar phrasing \u2014 not crude, not clean products, and not a packaged dangerous good with a published UN number in the PCG statements. Molasses at a distillery jetty is still a hot, pumpable cargo in an engine-room fire. A chief engineer has to treat the case as an engine-room fire with a cargo-operation overlay: bunker and machinery-space isolation, cargo-hose and manifold status, and a jetty that had city firefighters and two tugs working a ship that was still making smoke after the accommodation was reported clear. No sheen, spill volume or environmental notice appears in the PCG, GMA, Inquirer or Marine Insight copy. Do not invent a pollution figure to fill that gap.<\/p>\n

Fast Guy Logistic Corporation is the registered owner on the Daily Tribune police account. Open company material for Fastguys Logistic Corporation describes a Makati-based ship-management and logistics operator that expanded into owning cargo vessels, barges and tugs from November 2023. That is corporate background, not a PCG finding of fault. The Maritime Safety Investigation Unit\u2019s initial investigation is the process that matters. The cause is still not known.<\/p>\n

What a 45-hour berth fire means for other operators<\/h2>\n

A coastal tanker on a domestic molasses stem does not need a war-risk circular to create a port-state and terminal problem. Forty-five hours of firefighting at a distillery berth occupies the jetty, the city fire service, a coast-guard MRRV and harbour tugs, and it leaves a hull whose engine room has been under attack long enough for smoke to persist after the accommodation is visually clear. Other ships at Calaca, Balayan and Batangas still have to assume that a damaged molasses tanker may remain alongside or in the same basin while MSIU works, and that shore-side fire main, tug and medical capacity were concentrated on one hull from Wednesday into Friday.<\/p>\n

The two hospital cases are the crew-welfare file. An inhalational injury who leaves against medical advice is still an injured seafarer for the owner, the manning agent and the flag or domestic licensing authority. A second crew member held at Metro Lemery for monitoring is not a \u201cminor first-aid\u201d close-out. ISM, MLC medical-care and accident-reporting clocks start on Wednesday, not on Saturday\u2019s stand-down.<\/p>\n

Do not fold Gindara into the unused Lite Shipping electric-vehicle stowage note, the June Aster Palawan casualty, or any Hormuz or Red Sea product. Those are different ships and different hazards. This file is an engine-room fire on a molasses tanker at a Batangas distillery berth, two injured, fire later declared out, cause open. Do not recast it as a confirmed fuel-oil explosion, a pollution event, a completed repair, or a reason to assume every Philippine coastal tanker now carries a new carriage rule.<\/p>\n

What Operators Should Note<\/h2>\n