Fire swept through a foreign-flagged cargo ship undergoing repairs at a shipyard in Qingdao, in eastern China, on Thursday, September 10, 2026, killing 25 people, Chinese state media reported, after rescue crews spent the afternoon and evening accounting for everyone who had been aboard.
The blaze began at about 11:15 a.m. local time (03:15 GMT) aboard the Ocean Melody, a bulk carrier docked for maintenance at the Haixi Bay facility of Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Co. in Shandong province. Emergency crews extinguished the open flames by roughly 2:30 p.m., just over three hours after the fire started.
Of the 42 people aboard when the fire began, 17 were brought off the vessel alive. Five of them were injured and taken to a hospital, where they were reported in stable condition. Early accounts put the number of people evacuated safely at 12 and listed 25 as missing inside the ship.
The toll climbed through the day as search teams worked their way through the vessel’s compartments, and rescuers had recovered 20 of the missing by 5:30 p.m. “As of 7:24 pm on September 10, all 25 missing persons had been found, none showing signs of life,” state media reported.
The Ship and the Repair Yard
The Ocean Melody is a 190-meter bulk carrier built in 2006, a supramax vessel with a deadweight of 55,742 tons. According to tracking data, the vessel sailed into Qingdao on August 31 after leaving Taicang, a port not far away, and had spent the days that followed in the yard undergoing repair work. Automatic identification system records showed the ship had moved into a Beihai repair berth and was still logged inside the yard that afternoon.
The vessel is under relatively new ownership. It sailed for years as the Strange Attractor in the fleet of Star Bulk Carriers, which agreed to sell it in early 2025. Huili Shipping took delivery in April 2025 and renamed it Ocean Melody, and Shanghai-based Yuyangkunpeng Ship Management has managed it since the sale.
Beihai Shipbuilding operates under China State Shipbuilding Corporation, the state-controlled group that is the world’s largest shipbuilder. The yard’s website lists ship construction and repair as its core work, and its Haixi Bay repair docks can take vessels of up to 300,000 deadweight tons. It ranks among the larger yards the state group runs, handling new construction, conversions and repairs for Chinese and foreign-flagged ships alike.
Xi Jinping Orders Swift Investigation
The accident drew directives from the top of the Chinese government. Chinese President Xi called for “all-out” search and rescue efforts, along with careful aftermath work and support for victims and their families. The president also ordered a swift investigation into what caused the fire, and told regions and departments to draw lessons from it, scour their operations for fire hazards, tighten precautions and prevent further major accidents.
Premier Li Qiang called for anyone still trapped aboard to be rescued, for the injured to be treated and for secondary disasters to be strictly prevented. He also instructed the State Council Work Safety Committee to press production-safety responsibilities and clear risks nationwide.
A working group from China’s Ministry of Emergency Management was sent to Qingdao to support the crews responding on the ground. Firefighting, medical, public security, maritime and industry emergency units were mobilized at the shipyard under the direction of Shandong and Qingdao commands, and the province’s party and government chiefs went to the yard to oversee the response.
Cause Remains Undisclosed
Chinese authorities have not said what caused the fire. An eyewitness told the AFP news agency that thick smoke was pouring off the ship, though he heard no explosion. Videos posted online showed workers on board trying to fight the flames, and photographs released by the official Xinhua News Agency showed fire vehicles massed near the vessel at the port.
Repair yards carry fire risks that differ from those of a ship at sea: hot work such as welding and cutting is often done in enclosed spaces alongside residual fuel, paint and insulation. Investigators have not said whether any such factors played a role.
The fire came less than a month after an explosion at a shipyard in Fujian province, in southeastern China, that left one rescue worker dead and 12 people hurt. Official data released this year recorded 19,884 workplace safety accidents across China in 2025, in which 18,261 people died — a year-on-year decline of roughly 7 percent in fatalities.
Qingdao’s Shipbuilding Footprint
Qingdao, on China’s eastern coast, is one of the country’s largest trading and shipbuilding centers and ranks among the world’s busiest ports, moving containers, bulk cargo and energy shipments through terminals that anchor major regional supply routes. Foreign-flagged vessels routinely call at its yards for maintenance between voyages, as the Ocean Melody did after arriving from Taicang on August 31.
No names of the dead, the injured or the survivors have been released. With the flames out and everyone aboard accounted for, the official response has turned to the investigation Xi ordered into how a repair job at the Beihai yard ended with 25 of the 42 people on the ship dead.