For the fifth day, the Euroferry Olympia is on fire and efforts to locate the ten missing passengers continues.
On Monday, despite the rescue teams being reinforced with a total of 42 people, in addition to specialists from the Dutch company Smit Salvage that has speciality boats, it was not possible to locate any of the passengers.
The searches continued in shifts throughout the night from Sunday to Monday, something that did not happen yesterday from Monday to Tuesday.
In fact, the fire reached the bow where there were explosions and the rescue operation stopped to continue this morning with the first light as officially informed by the Port Authorities last night.
According to experts, the glow of the sheet metal, despite the efforts to cool it with water, reached the storage area of flammable materials in the large warehouse, which is almost always in the bow, which is full of paints, turpentine and gasoline.
Despite the attempt to lower the temperature by throwing water from the tugs and the fire brigades, the fire spread and the anxiety for locating the missing grows.
Using a thermal camera, rescuers measured the temperature to see where it is safer to approach.
In the bow they had recorded up to 300 degrees Celsius, in the stern the prices were falling by half.
From there they climbed, climbing an escalator, wearing a double fireproof suit and watching every step.
Authorities fear there could be even more than ten missing people after a rescored Afghan passenger was not registered as being on the ferry, meaning that there could be others who entered the ship illegally.
According to Proto Thema, the ship has taken a slight tilt to the right due to the large amount of water from the fire brigade.
There is now concern because the weather is expected to worsen in the Ionian Sea.
The effort of the rescue teams is difficult as they have to look through 155 trucks in four garages located on the lower deck, the main deck, the upper deck and the open deck - this is in difficult conditions, in an incandescent atmosphere, full of toxic gases.
Until yesterday, three Coast Guard vessels were involved in the operation (which are now simply monitoring the sea area around the ship), five tugs, a Fire Brigade boat and a Navy and one Coast Guard helicopter were on standby.
Truck drivers are not allowed to be in the garage during the trip.
In fact, for security reasons, the garages are usually locked and it is not possible to enter their space since the doors are closed.
None-the-less, in the context of fire safety, patrols are mandatory in all areas of the ferry by crew members throughout the trip.
On two of the ship's decks, where rescuers operate with oxygen and special uniforms, the carbon dioxide exceeds 500 Ppm (unit of measurement for carbon dioxide).
In fact, every operation that takes place cannot last more than 30 minutes while visibility is very limited.
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Only when the fires are completely extinguished and the air inside the ferry is better ventilated will conditions for it being taken to the commercial port, in order to be thoroughly investigated by experts.
The fire on the ship Euroferry Olympia broke out on the third deck in the early hours of Friday morning in the sea area northeast of Ereikousa during its planned route from Igoumenitsa to Brindisi in Italy.
The rescued amount to 280 people, passengers and crew.
However, ten people are reported missing, while a 58-year-old Greek driver was found dead.
READ MORE: UNBELIEVABLE: Passenger rescued on the Euroferry Olympia was also on the Norman Atlantic ferry fire.
