A cargo vessel collides with a US-flagged tanker carrying jet fuel off the coast of the UK, causing a huge fire

On Monday, a container ship collided with a US-flagged oil tanker off the northeastern coast of England, resulting in many explosions and prompting the crews of both ships to leave their boats.

One person was being treated in the hospital, but the other 36 crew members from both ships were "safe and accounted for," according to Graham Stuart, a local Member of Parliament, after the coastguard dispatched a helicopter, lifeboats, and firefighting vessels from adjacent towns.

According to the ship monitoring program VesselFinder, just before 10 a.m. local time (6 a.m. ET), the Solong, a Portuguese-flagged container ship, collided with the Stena Immaculate, an oil tanker anchored in the North Sea approximately 10 miles off the English coast.

According to VesselFinder, the Solong departed the Scottish port of Grangemouth on Sunday evening and was en route to Rotterdam, Netherlands, when the incident occurred.

According to tracking data from Marine Traffic, a website that monitors vessel movement, the Stena Immaculate was anchored just off the coast of the mouth of the River Humber near Hull when it was hit, while the Solong, sailing under the Portuguese flag, was on its way from Scotland to the Netherlands.

The event occurred during daytime hours, raising doubts about how the two ships collided.

Martyn Boyers, CEO of Grimsby East Port, told Sky News, a British news station, that the location was foggy on Monday morning, which might have led to visibility concerns.

“This morning, it’s been very foggy, and the fog has never lifted,” he added. A spokesman for the East Midlands Ambulance Service said it had sent “multiple resources,” including a hazardous area response team, to the port in Grimsby.

 The Stena Immaculate is one of twelve tankers engaging in a US government gasoline delivery program for the military. The Department of Defense’s “Tanker Security Program,” according to Crowley, “ensures a commercial fleet can readily transport liquid fuel supplies in times of need.”

The Stena Immaculate "sustained a ruptured cargo tank containing Jet-A1 fuel" as a result of the incident, according to Crowley. According to VesselFinder, it moored off the coast of England after departing the Greek port of Agioi Theodoroi last month.