The search for missing persons on the Italian car ferry, which has been on fire since Friday Euroferry Olympia in the southern Adriatic is extremely difficult. The special units despair: “We measure temperatures around 600 degrees on the outside of the ship. You can’t do anything like that,” said the head of the special command of the Greek civil service, Giorgos Mitsis, on television. There is no trace of twelve missing, he added. 280 people could be brought to safety on Friday.
The ferry was towed by tugs towards the Greek island of Corfu on Saturday afternoon, according to real-time ship movement internet portal MarineTraffic. It was initially unclear whether it was to be taken to a port or just to a bay sheltered from the wind. For the coming days, the wind is expected to pick up to force seven in the southern Adriatic.
Another ship fire in the Atlantic
The major fire in a huge car transporter with VW cars on the Atlantic continued to get out of control on Saturday. The Freighter Felicity Ace with around 4000 cars from the VW group, which also includes Porsche, Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini, continues to burn on the Atlantic. However, everyone on board could be rescued here: the Portuguese air force brought the 22-man crew to safety soon after the fire broke out on Wednesday.
Dutch salvage experts were already exploring on site how the fire on the almost 200-meter-long ship about 170 kilometers south of the Azores, which belongs to Portugal, could be extinguished. The pictures showed that the fire had already spread from bow to stern. Due to the enormous heat inside, the hull above the waterline had even melted in places.
Plumes of smoke rise from the burning car freighter Felicity Ace, as seen from a Portuguese Navy ship.
(Photo: AP/AP)
The port captain of Porto da Horta on the Azores island of Faial, which is closest to the shipwreck, João Mendes Cabeças, told the newspaper Correio dos Açores on Saturday that the fire could not be extinguished with water because the ship was already listing slightly and toxic substances were being washed into the sea.
Many of the cars charged are electric models, the batteries of which make deleting them a little more complicated. By Wednesday, three deep-sea tugs should be at the Felicity Ace arrive. Upon request, VW confirmed that the ship was transporting new cars from the VW Group. A spokesman did not want to confirm media reports that there were around 1100 Porsches and some Bentleys and many Audis.
There was initially no information about the causes of both fire disasters. The fuel tanks on both ships posed a significant risk. If the fuel spilled into the sea, there would be an oil spill.