Golden Ray Burns

Update from the unified response:

St. Simons Sound Incident Response

Update: Crew safely evacuated following fire onboard wreck

BRUNSWICK, Ga – A fire began on the wreck of the Golden Ray this afternoon.

All non-essential responders from the VB-10000 have been safely evacuated and there are no reported injuries at this time.

Responders were conducting pre-cutting operations and actively using fire suppression systems as a preventative measure when the fire began.

Firefighting vessels are on scene. Safety personnel are conducting community air monitoring.

The Golden Ray, the vehicle hauler which capsized in the St. Simons Sound in September of 2019 is on fire.There’s no word yet on the cause of the fire but the preliminary discussions are centering a spot-welding incident around the vehicles that remain from the 4000 vehicle cargo that was originally aboard. The cleanup has been ongoing for over a year and a half as various difficulties have beset the process of cutting the Golden ray into sections and removing them. The most recent section to be removed, the engine section, was thought to be the most difficult piece of the entire operation and once that was gone, worker thought the removal was in the home stretch but today’s fire may be the biggest setback yet.

The fire is said to be a Class D fire and will need to be out out with chemical foam. Every time the wind stiffens the flame grows larger. It will take some time to put the fire out. More as it develops.