A tugboat (right) from the Dutch salvage firm SMIT tows the fire-stricken Singapore-registered container ship MV X-Press Pearl (center) away from the coast of Colombo, Sri Lanka on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

A fire aboard a ship that triggered Sri Lanka's worst-ever marine ecological disaster was finally extinguished Tuesday after a 13-day international operation, the navy said.

The near two-week inferno prompted a mammoth clean-up operation as huge volumes of microplastic granules from the Singapore-registered ship's containers inundated 80 kilometers of beach.

The unprecedented pollution forced a fishing ban and saw thousands of troops deployed to scoop tons of burnt plastic from beaches.

Experts from Dutch salvage company SMIT boarded the MV X-Press Pearl Tuesday and reported massive flooding of the engine rooms.

Sri Lankan navy divers were also deployed to examine the hull below the waterline to check for any cracks, officials said. 

The fire was first reported on May 20 as the ship was about to enter Colombo port. 

The blaze was initially contained, but strong monsoon winds fanned the fire, forcing the crew to evacuate on May 25.

Navy spokesperson Captain Indika de Silva said the stern of the 186-meter-long container carrier had gone down by about a meter because of the flooding.

"It is not unusual for the vessel to trim by aft [tilt to the rear] when water sprayed on deck settles in the engine room," Silva told AFP.

He said the spraying of water was stopped to prevent further flooding, but some areas of the ship were still too hot to carry out a complete examination of the vessel.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered officials to move the vessel from its anchorage near the port and move it to deeper waters in a bid to minimize further coastal damage, his office said.

"Representatives from a number of fields, including shipping and the environment, pointed out that the vessel was at risk of sinking," the president's office said. "Their suggestion, then, was to take the vessel to the deep seas to minimize possible damage to the marine environment."

Sri Lankan authorities fear an even greater disaster should the 278 tons of bunker oil and 50 tons of gasoil in the ship's fuel tanks leak into the Indian Ocean.

AFP