Taiwan's coast guard has rescued four injured survivors from a bulker that caught fire off the coast of Kaohsiung, including one seafarer who needed treatment for serious burns.
At about 1700 hours on Saturday, Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) received notice that the 50,000 dwt bulker Panoria had suffered an engine room fire off the coast of Pintung County. The crew managed to put it out, but three crewmembers sustained minor burn injuries and one more had serious burns. The master requested evacuation for all 21 personnel on board.
The CGA dispatched five response vessels to the scene, but wave heights of more than 12 feet made it impractical to conduct a ship-to-ship transfer of personnel. A helicopter aircrew from the Ministry of National Defense also joined the response. At about 1700 hours, the aircrew safely hoisted all four men aboard and delivered them to Kaohsiung's airport, where they were transferred onward to a hospital.
The 17 uninjured crewmembers had to remain aboard the vessel because of the risk of attempting further flight operations in the prevailing conditions. The tug Salvage Rigger got under way to take the bulker in tow, and as of Sunday the towing vessel was off Taiwan's coast, heading northwest at a slow bell.
Panoria is a geared bulker built in 2008 and owned and operated in Greece. Her last two port state control inspections - in France and Indonesia, respectively - turned up a combined 19 deficiencies, including problems with fire pumps and availability of firefighting equipment.
Panoria was detained in Indonesia two months ago for firefighting system deficiencies, along with issues with her sewage treatment and oil filtering equipment. All were checked off as corrected in a followup inspection before her departure.
