Fire Crews Fight Ship Acid Leak

Fire crews are working to contain a potential battery acid leak on a container ship docked in West Melbourne. The Ital Moderna arrived in port early this morning carrying a container loaded with car batteries, but the contents were disturbed while the ship was en route to Melbourne. The leak was noticed by workers at Appleton Dock when they began unloading the ship. A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Fire Brigade said 12 fire-fighting crews were called in to help keep the acid from leaking from the container and injuring port workers or damaging the environment.The Ital Moderna"We've got crews working within the ship and on the dock and it's taken about an hour to bring under control," she said. "They are going to be down there for a long time. All the batteries have to be unloaded. It's a corrosive acid and could give off toxic fumes in a fire. "Potentially there's a lot of acid there so it has to be handled with a lot of care." The spokeswoman said the leak didn't pose an environmental threat. Victoria Police and WorkSafe were notified of the hazard.