13.02.2009
Source:
Translation:
RusNavy.com
The crew of the fishing boat Ekarma-7, which has been burning for the last two weeks, have arrived at the Far East port, a Sakhalin navigation official told Ria Novosti.
Ninety-five people were on board the
Ekarma-7, amongst them 43 Russian citizens. No-one was reported hurt.Four crewmembers, including the captain, remain aboard a rescue ship, the official told the agency. He noted that the foreigners who worked on the trawler will be taken to Pusan.
"Today the crew of the rescue ship
Spravedlivy plans to visit the trawler. An attempt to climb aboard the
Ekarma-7 on Thursday was unsuccessful. It was impossible to walk on the ship. The trawler was burning hot and filled with smoke,” a duty officer of the navigation service said, adding that the
Ekarma-7 was still filled with smoke.
The official pointed out that rescuers from the
Spravedlivy last weekend towed the trawler towards the Magadan coast, where they worked on the boat in normal weather. The trawler and rescue ship are 56 miles away from Magadan.
The trawler, which is owned by the company
Ekarma-Sakhalin and is registered at the Nevelsk port, caught fire on Jan 29. The boat, which was being used for fishing 170 kilometers west of Cape Lopatka, reportedly caught fire as material used to package fish began burning.
The tugboat
Spravedlivy reached the trawler
Ekarma-7 on Jan 30. A team from the rescue ship wanted to tow the trawler to the port and inspect it. But on the night of 1 Feb, the rescuers discovered that the fire had started again and the fire was put down only at the end of the day.
The Sakhalin Transport Prosecutors’ Office is conducting an inspection in relation to the fire, an official told
Ria Novosti. The first inspection has shown that he fire reportedly was a result of the incineration of packaging material that was in the hold of the ship. The fire-extinguishing system also failed to work.
The use of the fire-extinguishing system did not help contain the fire. The official said that none of the 95 crewmembers was hurt but that the hold had burned out completely.
Based on the results of the inspection, the public prosecutor's office will give a legal assessment of the actions of the captain of the
Ekarma-7 and the management of the
Ekarma-Sakhalin company.
The
Ekarma-7, built in Japan in 1983, has a length of 94.5 meters and a width of 15 meters. It has a water displacement of 6,362 tonnes.
