Body found and and survivor rescued as ferry continues to burn off Corfu
20 February 2022, 19:04
Ten people are still unaccounted for on the ferry which caught fire while sailing between Igoumenitsa in Greece and the Italian port of Brindisi.
Greek emergency workers rescued a Belarussian truck driver on Sunday from a burning ferry off the island of Corfu and found the body of another man as they combed the wreckage for missing passengers.
The discoveries left 10 people still unaccounted for.
The truck driver, in his 20s, was able to make his way up to the left rear deck on his own, and told rescue workers he heard other voices below.
The victim was identified as a 58-year-old Greek truck driver by his family.
“The fact that this man succeeded, despite adverse conditions, to exit into the deck and alert the coastguard, gives us hope that there may be other (survivors),” coastguard spokesman, Nikos Alexiou, told state broadcaster ERT.
The Italian-owned Euroferry Olympia, which was carrying more than 290 passengers and crew as well as 153 trucks and 32 cars, caught fire on Friday, three hours after it left the north-western Greek port of Igoumenitsa bound for the Italian city of Brindisi.
The Greek coastguard and other boats evacuated about 280 people to the nearby island of Corfu.
The ferry has been towed to the port of Kassiopi, in north-eastern Corfu. Firefighters were still battling the blaze in spots on Sunday and a thick smoke still blanketed the ship.
Alexiou said his understanding was that the truck driver had not heard any voices just before making his way onto the deck but added “the situation is evolving.” The survivor was taken to a hospital for a medical examination.
The extreme temperatures in some parts of the ship have impeded the Greek fire service’s Disaster Management Unit and a team of private rescuers from searching the whole ship.
The ferry is slightly listing from the tons of water poured into it to douse the fire but authorities say it’s not in danger of capsizing.
Two passengers were rescued Saturday. One was not on the ship’s manifest and was presumably a migrant. The other person, a 65-year-old Bulgarian truck driver, had respiratory problems and is on a ventilator in a Corfu hospital’s intensive care unit.
A Greek prosecutor on Corfu has ordered an investigation into the cause of the fire. The Italy-based company that operates the ferry said the fire started in a hold where vehicles were parked.
The ship’s captain and two engineers were arrested on Friday but were released the same day, authorities said.
Passengers described the initial evacuation as dramatic.
“We heard the alarm. We thought it was some kind of drill. But we saw through the portholes that people were running,” truck driver Dimitris Karaolanidis told The Associated Press.
“You can’t think something at the time (other than) your family. When I hit the deck, I saw smoke and children. Fortunately, they (the crew) acted quickly.”
