A fire broke out this Friday, February 18, 2022 on a liner flying the Italian flag in the Ionian Sea with 290 registered people on board, including 51 crew members. At least 12 people are missing.
The ship made a regular night connection between the Greek port of Igoumenitsa and the Italian port of Brindisi.
Divers have widened their search area at sea around the burning building, to find any missing off the Greek island of Corfu, said the Greek coast guard.
The fire broke out shortly after 4 a.m. when the Italian company Grimaldi’s “Euroferry Olympia” was off the islet of Erikoussa, between Greece and Albania.
Of a total of 290 people registered on board, including 51 Italian and Greek crew members, 278 were rescued and transported to the port of Corfu, according to the report of the Greek coast guard intervened alongside an Italian patrol boat.
An open investigation
Ten of them were hospitalized with breathing problems and minor injuries, according to Greek public television ERT. But several are still missing.
“An operation is underway to locate eleven missing passengers,” said a statement from the coast guard. Nine are Bulgarian nationals, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry confirmed.
A team of specialized Greek rescuers was able to board the burning ship where, according to the Grimaldi company, five missing persons were “located”.
Among the survivors is a clandestine migrant, whose presence raises fears that of possible other passengers not counted on the burning ship.
The cause of the fire is not yet known and an investigation has been opened. The fire could have started from a truck parked in the holds reserved for vehicles, the captain of the ferry told the crew of Italian rescuers, according to the Ansa press agency.
“There was no fuel spill at sea and the stability of the ship does not seem to be compromised,” added the Grimaldi group, in a press release.
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 to Ancona. It had killed 13 people, including nine passengers.