Greece-Italy ferry caught fires: 3 trapped nine missing

Greece-Italy ferry caught fires: 3 trapped, nine missing. 

Greece: Nine people are missing after a fire caused a ship to sink across Greece towards Italy at around 6:00 am on Friday. Firefighters struggled to free passengers trapped on the vessel, the authorities claimed.

The total number of passengers and 51 crew members were onboard the Italian flagged Euroferry Olympia as the fire broke out and rescue vessels transported the bulk on the islands of Corfu, where ambulances waited.

“It was so unreal, it was a bit like the Titanic, but it was real,” David Waller is a 58-year-old truck driver who was saved and was staying in the hotel on Corfu, the island of Corfu, told Reuters.

The Greek fire brigade reported that two people trapped in the garage of the ship were rescued and lifted by helicopters, one of which was not on the missing list. The firefighters were trying to find three others who were trapped.

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Grimaldi Lines, the vessel owner, told the media in the past that tugboats are heading into the area to assist get the ship back to its place.

The footage from the coastguard showed rows and rows of burned trucks on the deck after flames spread across the massive 183-meter (600-foot) ferry, which was making nine hours of travel all night.

“The worst thing is the cars in the garage are glued next to each other. There is no escape route,” one Greek truck driver, who declined to provide his name when he arrived on Corfu.

What caused the fire was under investigation, Greek authorities said.

According to Greek health, the official said on state TV at least 10 people had been admitted to the Corfu hospital, most of them have been suffering from breathing issues.

In the early hours of Friday, the passengers were huddled under yellow blankets on the Italian rescue vessel while huge flames of smoke came from the vessel in one video. 

“May Day,” the words “May Day” were repeatedly played by speakers in the video uploaded to Greek news site Proto Thema.

The ferry left from Igoumenitsa, one of the biggest ports in western Greece, and headed towards Brindisi, the Italian port in Brindisi. It carried 150 vehicles, most of which were vehicles, Grimaldi Lines said.

The fire began to spread while the ship was in Corfu within Corfu in the Ionian Sea. Within hours of the alarm being set, the vessel was still in flames, drifting within Albanian water, Grimaldi Lines said, noting that there were no spills of fuel or environmental damages.

“At around 3.30–4.00 am. I smelled smoke,” Rumen Metodiev, the Bulgarian truck driver, said on the Bulgarian BNT channel. 

“The trucks and the documents, everything burned. But, unfortunately, there was no chance to put out the fire,” the driver said.

Bulgaria’s foreign ministry announced that 127 citizens of the country were aboard.

Grimaldi Lines spokesman Paul Kyprianou said to Reuters that there were signs the fire began in one of the holds. He explained that the company was working hard to help passengers – mainly from Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey- get back home.

“The flames were incredibly high. We were a few miles away from the ferry when it happened,” Colonel Lodovico Simone Cicchetti of Italy’s Financial Police, who was a part of the rescue mission, said.

“The fire was so big and fast that in a matter of five minutes, it became unmanageable for the people aboard.”

In 2014 10 people died in the fire on the ferry car Norman Atlantic carrying 466 passengers and crew caught on fire while traveling between Greece in the direction of Italy.