A fierce fire on a fishing boat in waters off Keelung quickly burned out of control yesterday and forced the evacuation of the vessel’s crew of six who were rescued by a nearby ship and the Coast Guard Administration (CGA).
After being rescued, the owner of the fishing boat, surnamed Yen (嚴), accused the CGA of being slow to react to the blaze, saying that the fire had already been burning for an hour before the agency’s’ fire-fighting craft arrived.
However, CGA officials dismissed the allegation there had been a delay in its emergency response.
The CGA said that it received a call reporting a fire offshore at 9:59am, and immediately prepared CGA’s No. 10050 patrol boat, which left the port at 10:18am, and arrived at the burning vessel at 10:30am.
The Li Fa No 368 trawler had departed Keelung’s Badouzi Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 9am, aiming to fish in waters off Keelung Islet (基隆嶼).
Just before 10am, a fire broke out in the boat’s engine room, and it quickly turned into a major blaze and consumed most of the vessel.
“The blaze enveloped the engine room fast. We tried to put it out with fire extinguishers, but it was no use, the fire was too fierce. Myself and rest of the crew gathered at the bow of the boat, because the rest of the vessel was on fire,” captain Hung Chin-te (洪錦德) said.
He said it was lucky for them that there were other vessels nearby, and recreational fishing boat Jie An No 2 picked up all six crewmembers, and returned them to Badouzi Fishing Harbor.
Hung added that as Li Fa No 368 had just begun its day, it contained a full tank of 12,000 liters of fuel, and thus the flames quickly burned out of control.
The CGA said that its No. 10050 patrol boat fought the blaze with water and also doused it with fire-retardant froth sprays, but failed to stop most of the vessel from being destroyed.
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