The owner of the company whose lorries burned in a ferry fire off Corfu island speaks to BNT

A ferry with 231 passengers and 59 crew members on board burst into flames in the early hours on February 18 in the Ionian Sea. At least people 11 are missing. The rescue operation by helicopter lasted hours for a Bulgarian and a Turkish drivers who remained stranded on the ship. 127 Bulgarians were travelling on the "Euroferry Olympia". There were no reports of any injuries, the Foreign Ministry assured.

The ferry "Euroferry Olympia" of the Italian company "Grimaldi" was travelling from Igoumenitsa in Greece to Brindisi in Italy. Around 9 hours after it had set sail, at 4.30 am, on February 18, a fire broke out on deck 3. In less than 15 minutes, the blaze engulfed the upper decks.

Bulgarian lorry driver, Rumen Metodiev, says the evacuation organisation was good.

"They gathered us in one place, a safe place on the ship, then they put us on the boats that were in the ship. Then another ship came and picked us up. And the lorries and the documents – everything burned," Rumen Metodiev said.

The rescued people were accommodated on the island of Corfu. One person with respiratory problems is in hospital. Greek and Italian rescuers started to put out the fire.

"Rescue operations are continuing. Strong winds are blowing in the area of the incident. Authorities have ordered the full mobilization of all rescue teams that can join by water and air," said Nikos Lagadianos, a spokesman for the Greek ministry of maritime affairs.

"The fire has not yet been extinguished. We are monitoring the situation closely and stand ready to deploy additional forces to extinguish the fire. As for information about people missing - we don't have any. We are checking the list of passengers and crew and checking it against the people already transported to Corfu. The passengers on board are from different countries, mostly from the Balkans. Many of them are drivers travelling between Greece and Italy. Most are Bulgarians, Romanians, there are also from Turkey and Greece," said Paul Kyprianos, spokesman for Grimaldi.

Not everyone made it off the burning ship, however. The rescue operation continues with a helicopter for a Bulgarian and a Turkish driver who remained in the ship, trapped.

"We are in contact with him by phone. And for the moment he is fine. He is in a part of the ship that is not currently on fire. They say there's no smoke there either, but for a few hours the authorities say they've been pouring water over the ship so they can cool it down and a few minutes ago they took to cutting a ramp there, a very thick ramp, to make a hole about a metre, a metre and something, through which they could get him and the Turkish driver who is also with him," said Ilian Filippov, owner of the haulage company PIMK.

The other 36 drivers from Ilian's company have been rescued and will return to Bulgaria tomorrow. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

The Foreign Ministry said that at the moment there are no reports of injured Bulgarians. The Bulgarian Embassy in Athens and our Consulate General in Thessaloniki are in constant contact with the Greek authorities and stand ready to assist if necessary.

Images by BGNES

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