This has been a bad week for shipboard fires. The car carrier Felicity Ace caught fire Wednesday in the Atlantic, off the Azores, and is still burning and adrift, awaiting salvage tugs. Fortunately, the 22 person crew was evacuated safely.
Yesterday, a blaze swept through the Euroferry Olympia, a ferry sailing from Greece to Italy. Reuters reports that of the 241 passengers and 51 crew on board when the fire broke out, 12 people are still missing. Rescue vessels moved most of the 280 people who were rescued to the nearby island of Corfu.
The 183-metre (600-foot) ferry caught fire en route from Igoumenitsa, a port in Western Greece, to the Italian port of Brindisi, a nine-hour journey.
Aerial footage released by the Greek coastguard on Friday showed rows of burnt trucks on the blackened deck after flames swept through the ship, owned by Grimaldi Lines. The ferry was carrying 153 vehicles, the company said.
The missing passengers are from Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and Lithuania, the Greek coastguard said, and their relatives faced an agonizing wait for news.
Thanks to David Rye and Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.
Sadly this is not the first time for maritime incidents with both of these companies. In general car carriers tend to instability due to design factors and the rushed loading system leads to short cuts being taken. This latter applies to Grimaldi ferries as well resulting in protocols not being followed.
Until the companies themselves correct this problem there will be more incidents in the future.
Good Watch
There are videos all over the computer of electric vehicle fires, and hoverboard fires..
Car ferry Ace, & Euroferry Olympia back to back, belly to belly, car ferry fires, electric vehicle cargo fires?
In at least one case of previous Ace Line incidents the fire was believed to have been caused by improper disconnection of car batteries amongst used cars being carried.
This of course is part of the shipping protocol however clearly it was not done during the usual rushed loading.
It is probable that the Grimaldi incidents could be due to the same cause.
Good Watch