Ship catches fire off Mangaluru coast, 46 people onboard rescued

Two Indian Coast Guard ships – Vikram and Sujay – were deployed to douse the fire which was reported late on Friday night.

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A ship carrying around 46 people onboard caught fire off the Mangaluru coast in Karnataka on Friday. The fire was doused by two ships of the Indian Coast Guard and no casualties have been reported.

The ship, named Sagar Sampada, is a research vessel of the Shipping Corporation of India and was carrying around 30 crew members and 16 scientists when it caught fire late on Friday night. The vessel caught fire when it was located around 30 nautical miles from the Mangaluru coast.

After an alert was sent out, two Indian Coast Guard ships – Vikram and Sujay – were promptly deployed to douse the fire, which was said to be a major one. There have been no casualties and all the people who were onboard the ship are safe. The ship is being brought back to Mangaluru port, the Indian coast guard tweeted.

“During late hrs on 15 Mar 19, #SCI Research Vessel Sagar Sampada reported fire onboard at sea @IndiaCoastGuard Ships Sujay & Vikram engaged in fire fighting ops. Safety of 36 crew & 16 scientist onboard ascertained. Vessel being escorted to New Mangalore harbour.@DefenceMinIndia,” the Coast Guard said on Twitter.

During late hrs on 15 Mar 19, #SCI Research Vessel Sagar Sampada reported fire onboard at sea @IndiaCoastGuard Ships Sujay & Vikram engaged in fire fighting ops. Safety of 36 crew & 16 scientist onboard ascertained. Vessel being escorted to New Mangalore harbour.@DefenceMinIndia pic.twitter.com/OBS9OYiaqH
— Indian Coast Guard (@IndiaCoastGuard) March 16, 2019

According to Coast Guards, around 10 pm on Friday night, the ‘static sensors’ deployed by the Indian coast guards across the coastal region picked up signals of a fire on board Sagar Sampada. “Our ‘Radar operating station’ at Mangaluru picked up the signals of fire onboard the vessel. Acting on the information, we quickly passed on the message to other vessels in the vicinity, including a merchant ship and proceeded to provide a fire rescue operation to Sagar Sampada,” DIG Surendra Singh Dasila, Commander of Coast Guard Karnataka said.

In a swift response, ICGS Vikram, an offshore patrolling vessel that was based out at Mangalore, along with ICGS Sujay were the first responders to the scene. “Once the ship was tracked down and identified our ‘boarding party’ met the crew of Sagar Sampada, took stock of the situation, provided them all kind of fire extinguishing assistance and equipment to smother the flame and smoke,” Dasila added.

The ship Sagar Sampada is an Indian research vessel that is equipped to carry out multidisciplinary research in oceanography, marine biology and fishery science.

Physical and mechanical assessment of the Sagar Sampada’ by the coast guards revealed that the ship is not crippled; only part of it had caught fire.

According to the Coast Guards, both the crew and the personnel are safe. However, for damaged assessment, the ship is now being escorted back to New Mangalore Port Trust at Mangalore (NMPT) by ICGS Vikram. The ship is anticipated to reach at NMPT by 1 pm on Saturday.

With inputs from StoryInfinity

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Ship catches fire off Mangaluru coast, 46 people onboard rescued

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