A fire broke out on a Ro-Pax ferry while it was underway in the Baltic Sea between mainland Finland and the Åland Islands on Monday, March 2.
The incident on the Finnish-registered Silja Serenade occurred on Monday evening (local time) when a blaze ignited in one of the ferry's cargo of container trucks that was carrying scrap metal.
The vessel had departed Helsinki and was en route to Åland's capital of Mariehamn at the time of the incident.
The ferry arrived at the Port of Mariehamn at around 03:00 on Tuesday, March 3. By that time, however, the smoke had become too heavy that specialist firefighters from Helsinki and Turku needed to be airlifted to the port to help extinguish the blaze.
The firefighters and the crew later filled up the affected container with sand, as water could not be employed due to the greater risk of explosion.
The area around the ferry in the port's western area has been cordoned off as a safety precaution while investigators work to identify the probable causes of the incident.