Rescue efforts resume for 12 passengers missing after Greece ferry fire

The fire which is still burning from yesterday and the intense heat on the ferry prevented rescuers from boarding this morning

A rescue team continued the search for 12 missing people at the break of dawn this morning after an Italian-flagged ferry caught fire off Corfu in the Ionian Sea.

Overnight, patrol ships combed the area off the holiday island hoping to locate survivors, the Greek coast guard told local media.

Rescuers brought 280 passengers to Corfu after the blaze on the Euroferry Olympia broke out en route from Greece to Italy.

Officials say the cause of the fire remains unknown.

The coast guard said all of the missing are truck drivers — seven from Bulgaria, three from Greece, one from Turkey and one from Lithuania.

Truckers who were rescued from the vessel told Greece’s public broadcaster on Saturday that some drivers preferred to sleep in their vehicles because the ship’s cabins were overcrowded.

According to the Kathimerini newspaper, since June 2017 the Syndicate of Greek Professional Truck Drivers had warned about the conditions on Euroferry Olympia as well Euroferry Egnazia, both belonging to Grimaldi.

In a letter to the Greek Marine Ministry, they reported the air conditioning did not work in the cabins and there were not enough cabins for the number of passengers.

They had also complained that the ventilation in the garage did not work.

The 27-year-old ship’s latest safety check was at Igoumenitsa on 16 February, the company said.

The last shipboard fire in the Adriatic occurred in December 2014 on the Italian ferry Norman Atlantic. Thirteen people died in that blaze.