Greek rescuers are still looking, Saturday, February 19, for twelve passengers from an Italian ferry, ravaged for 24 hours by a fire 50 km off the Greek island of Corfu. Aided by a helicopter, a frigate, six tugboats and a firefighting vessel, divers and firefighters crisscross the disaster area, hoping to find twelve truck drivers who are missing.
The missing are seven Bulgarians, three Greeks, a Lithuanian and a Turk, the Greek coast guard told AFP. But the tragedy, which occurred on board the’Euroferry Olympia, may have caused other victims. In addition to the 278 registered passengers, two illegal Afghan migrants were also rescued. This raises fears that people not on the manifesto may have disappeared, with migrants often boarding the ferries smuggled from Greece to Italy.
The blaze fanned by the wind
The blaze fanned by the wind, the sporadic explosions and the infernal temperature rising to more than 500 degrees now prevent help from intervening on board the ship, according to the firefighters and the Greek coast guard. The ship of the Italian company Grimaldi, en route to Brindisi in Italy, caught fire at dawn on Friday February 18, two hours following leaving the Greek port of Igoumenitsa, with 290 people, including 51 crew members, registered on board.
The 280 rescued people spent the night at the hotel or at the hospital for a dozen of them suffering from minor injuries or breathing difficulties. The investigation by the Greek Maritime Accident Service has only just begun. The fire might have started from a truck parked in the holds, according to several concordant declarations. The captain of the ferry and two mechanics are heard on Saturday by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, according to the public television channel ERT.
The boat must be towed ” in safe place “ to pump fuel and water, in order to avoid any maritime pollution, declared the Greek Minister of Merchant Marine Giannis Plakiotakis, this Saturday February 19 on Skaï TV.
Truck drivers sleep in their truck
Friday evening, two passengers, prisoners in the vehicle hold, were able to be evacuated following more than ten hours in thick smoke, before being hospitalized, according to the coast guard. But the specialized team that had been able to board might not stay in the burning ship.
Several truck drivers told ERT on Saturday that some preferred to sleep in their trucks rather than in crowded ferry cabins.
According to the daily Kathimerinithe Greek truckers’ union denounced in June 2017 the malfunction of the air conditioning in the cabins of theEuroferry Olympia and of theEuroferry Egnazia, another Grimaldi ship. In a letter to the Greek Ministry of Merchant Marine, quoted by the newspaper, the union also criticizes the lack of cabins and the poor ventilation of the holds reserved for vehicles.
In accordance with international legislation, the ferry, built in 1995, had undergone a control visit which “came to a positive result” on February 16, said the Grimaldi group. The previous fire on a ferry in this part of the Mediterranean took place in December 2014 on the Norman Atlantic, an Italian ship, which was en route from Patras (Greece) to Ancona (Italy). It had killed 13 people, including nine passengers.
