One person died while his five companions were rescued after a fire broke out aboard a tug off Miyako Island in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture on Friday, October 30.
The 237GT Cebu-Hope was approximately 37 kilometres north of the Ikema Island lighthouse and en route to the Philippines when a ship agency employee reported the fire to the Japan Coast Guard at around 08:15 local time.
The crew of a coast guard aircraft sent from Ishigaki located a liferaft drifting about 300 metres east of the burning tug at around 09:30.
A helicopter from the same base then hoisted the raft’s five occupants between 10:00 and 10:24.
The survivors are all Japanese adult males. None were reported injured.
Patrol vessels from Miyakojima and Naha responded alongside special rescue personnel from Haneda, three of whom boarded the tug at around 15:50.
At around 16:10, they located the 65-year-old chief engineer in the engine room, unconscious and with severe burns, and confirmed that he had died at the scene.
The fire was declared extinguished at around 17:20. The coast guard has been interviewing the survivors as part of its investigation into the cause.
The Tsuneishi Group said the tug, formerly named Shojin Maru of Kambara Tug and Marine Services, had been transferred on October 16 to an unnamed Philippine-based associated company within the group.
The tug departed Onomichi on October 27. All six crewmembers belonged to the company contracted to undertake the delivery voyage, the group said.
The tug berthed at Hirara Port on Miyako Island on the morning of October 31. The group relayed the coast guard's assessment that there was no risk of an oil spill.
AIS data listed the tug under the flag of Mongolia.
