One Passenger Found Alive On Greece-Italy Ferry After The Blaze

A ferry passenger listed as a missing person after a vessel caught fire on its way from Greece to Italy on Friday has been found alive by rescuers, leaving 11 people still unaccounted for.

The survivor was spotted on the stern of the ship as it was being towed to the shore, a Greek shipping ministry official said on Sunday.

A total of 241 passengers and 51 crew were aboard the Italian-flagged Euroferry Olympia when a blaze broke out early on Friday en route from the Greek port of Igoumenitsa to the Italian port of Brindisi.

A thick cloud of black smoke billowed into the sky after wind rekindled the fire, with Greek state agency ANA reporting the heat onboard had reached 500 degrees Celsius.

More than 270 people were rescued and taken to a hotel on the island of Corfu.

At least nine people remain in the hospital with breathing difficulties. a Greek health ministry official told state television.

One survivor, lorry driver Danilo Carlucci, told Reuters: “We saw death in front of us.”

The cause of the blaze, which broke out during the ferry’s nine-hour journey through the night, is still being investigated.

Aerial footage released by the coastguard showed rows of burnt trucks on the blackened deck after flames swept through the 600-foot ferry.

The captain of the ship and two engineers were briefly detained to testify and have now been released.

Greek authorities said the 11 people who remain missing are believed to be lorry drivers – seven from Bulgaria, three from Greece, one from Turkey, and one from Lithuania.

Truckers revealed to Greek state TV on Saturday that some drivers chose to sleep in their vehicles because the cabins were overcrowded.

Conditions on the ship were criticized by drivers and relatives of the missing people in interviews with Greek media, however, the ferry’s operator said the vessel had last completed a safety check on Wednesday.

One of the rescued passengers; Fahri Ozgen recounted waiting for four hours for rescuers to arrive, as the flames roared around him.
“Two-hundred and fifty people were screaming, shouting, some of them were jumping into the sea,” he told AFP.

Turkish trucker Ali Duran said he had lost everything in the fire
“We lost our money, we lost our passports, we lost all our administrative documents,” he said.