The Philippine-registered vessel involved in the accident, was General Romulo and had been built in 1997 with a capacity of 519 TEU
While most people were celebrating Easter Sunday, the Philippine Coast Guard received a distress call on 17 April. According to the Coast Guard, the Coast Guard Sub-Station (CGSS) Talisay received information that M/V General Romulo caught fire. It had been anchored off the coast of Talisay City.
Authorities believe that the cause of the fire was an explosion of a pipe within the engine room, which then spread to the accommodations block. Investigations are still underway to identify the particular pipe that caused the tragedy.
Aftermath of incident
The accident resulted in one casualty and three injured seafarers. Shortly after the reporting of the incident to the Philippine Coast Guard, the personnel of CGSS Talisay and Talisay City Bantay Dagat immediately headed for the vicinity of the incident.
Other members of the crew were rescued from the flaming vessel along with three contractors by five vessels around the area, thankfully uninjured. The three injured seafarers were also transferred to a local hospital for treatment.
Before the fire, the vessel had been carrying 20 crew members. Based on satellite reports, its last port had been Manila, which it departed on 13 April and was operating as per its normal inter-island container service.
An update from the Philippine Coast Guard reported that there was no oil spill or contamination from the vessel and boundary cooling efforts were still in place to prevent the fire from reigniting.
Crewing Online Media Team
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