At 12.40 on Monday, there was a report of a fire on the car deck of the ferry MS Stena Scandica outside Gotska Sandön in the Baltic Sea, reported Aftonbladet. The fire is now out, confirms spokesperson for the Swedish Maritime Administration Lisa Mjörning to Dagbladet at 14.28. There will be 300 people on board, according to the Norwegian Maritime Administration. They have not been informed of any personal injuries, she tells the newspaper. – We have notified boats and helicopters, and cooperate with the Maritime Rescue Company, the Coast Guard and merchant shipping if it is the case that we have to evacuate. As it looks now, we don’t need it, Mjörning told SVT before the fire was extinguished. It started in a cold storage container Press spokesman for the Maritime Administration Jonas Frantzen tells TT that the fire started in a cooling container on the car deck. Frantzen tells the news agency that a few people have left the ferry. The rescue leader must decide whether a full-scale evacuation is necessary, Frantzen told TT. The Norwegian Maritime Authority said they had the fire under control at around 1.30pm. – The passengers on board have been taken care of and there is a limited spread of the fire. I can’t specify it more in advance because we are still building a picture of the situation, says a spokesperson for Stena Line, which operates the ferry, Stefan Elfström to SVT. The fire occurred close to the Salvorev nature reserve, which is an important nesting area for seabirds and a spawning area for fish. Unknown extent of damage The extent of damage to the ferry is currently unknown. – There is smoke, but no open flames, Mjörning told Aftonbladet when the fire had come under control. Several rescue services are involved in the operation. VG has been in contact with Giedrius Didoras, who lives in Brønnøysund. As of 1.36 p.m., Didoras says that he and the rest of the passengers are on the top deck. – They told us that there was a fire on a car tyre. The ferry has stopped, and I am waiting for information on what to do. We can’t see any of the flames, but we can see smoke from both sides of the ferry, Didoras told VG. The ferry Stena Scandica runs between Nynäshamn in Sweden and Ventspils in Latvia. The ferry has a capacity of 970 passengers.
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The fire on the passenger ferry outside Sweden has been extinguished – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
