Sweden: The fire on a ferry carrying 300 people was extinguished

A fire that broke out today on a ferry carrying 300 people has been extinguished and there were no casualties, Swedish port authorities said.

The Stena Scandica was sailing between Latvia and Sweden in the Baltic Sea when an alarm was raised at around 12:30 local time (1:30 p.m. Greek time) about a fire on board, according to the ship’s owning company and rescue services.

According to the Stena Line company that operates the ferry, the fire appears to have spread from a refrigerator truck in the garage.

“The fire has been extinguished,” Lisa Mjorning, a spokeswoman for the Swedish port authorities, told AFP around 4:30 p.m. Greek time.

“In the next three or four hours, the ferry will be towed to the port,” he explained.

The ferry was on its way from the Latvian port of Ventspils to that of Ninasamn, near Stockholm, where it will be towed.

The 300 people on board the ferry (about 240 passengers and 60 crew members) remained on board, according to the spokeswoman, who revised initial information that the ship had begun to be evacuated.

“There were no injuries on board and there was no evacuation,” according to port authorities.

A Stena Line spokesman described the fire as “confined, centered around a refrigerated lorry in the garage” “mainly smoke”.

Three helicopters and seven boats were sent to the scene. Another ferry was ordered to change course in case the ferry needed to be evacuated.

Stena Scanica is located off the island of Gotska Sandon, southeast of the Swedish authorities.

One of the biggest disasters of the 20th century unfolded between the Baltic countries and Sweden in September 1994 with the sinking of the ferry “Estonia” which caused the death of 852 people.

SOURCE: APE-ME