MSC Flaminia still a mystery

Sep 29: German Central Command for Maritime Emergencies published a press-release on Sep 28 with the MSC Flaminia salvage update. Once again it was said that the superstructure is finally, clean and safe. Superstructure was already declared to be clean on Sep 18. Press-release said that 80 undamaged containers were offloaded during the day, and maybe due to the fact that press-release is in German language only, the meaning of it is unclear – is it a daily rate, or just the offload of the day news were released. It is understood from the press-release, that the salvage started offloading undamaged containers from the aft part of the vessel behind the superstructure, not from the fore as it was planned initially. The salvage doesn’t have yet the required facilities to handle the containers, both damaged and undamaged, from the fore section. The meaning of this is simple – damaged or undamaged, the containers in the fore section are contaminated or may be contaminated, therefore requiring a thorough check and special handling. Maybe I miss something, but I didn’t stumble upon any official or unofficial explanation of the situation in general: what’s the level of contamination, what substances were spilled and how hazardous they are, how undamaged containers next to the damaged could be affected by the contamination, and what’s the procedure of handling the undamaged containers – when, to put it short, they will be passed to their owners. Of course there wasn’t (and won’t be, I guess) any explanation, description of the events on board of the vessel when the fire started. How and why those crew members who died or were injured were trapped in a fire, did they suffer from fire only, or from the released hazardous substances, too? Why the crew left the vessel in such a hurry, because they knew there was mortal danger of contamination, because they panic, or what?
Voytenko Mikhail
On a photo from GCCME website dated Sep 28 the offloading of aft containers under way.