Major fire on Mumbai ship, 33 sailors safe

A major fire broke out on a ship off Mumbai’s coast on Sunday afternoon endangering life of 33 sailors. Fortunately, none of the 33 sailors are said to be casualties of the fire.

“The Indian Coast Guard Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre at Mumbai received a distress alert at Mumbai high from a supply vessel Vestfonn at 2:20 pm on Sunday. The ship was at about 200 kms west of Mumbai. It ship intimated major fire in engine room which was increasing. Though no casualty was reported the situation warranted firefighting as well as evacuation of crew. A total of 33 crew members were reported to be onboard,” informed a Coast Guard officer.

As a result, an aircraft was diverted for surveillance purpose, followed by coordination with the merchant ships in the vicinity. 

An Offshore Support Vessel responded to the call for evacuation. Three Coast Guard Ships too were put into operations for rescue and firefighting. They were ICGS Achook, ICGS Sankalp and ICGS Samudra Prahari.

“Out of the total 33 crew members, 28 crew were evacuated by the ships in vicinity. Five crew members remained on board for managing the situation,” said Defence spokesperson Commander Rahul Sinha.

By Sunday evening, at around 7.30 pm, fire was controlled and the ship was being towed by an ONGC ship Malviya 24.