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Swedish operator Stena Line has confirmed that one of its vessels suffered an onboard fire that then caused it to lose power and drift in the Baltic Sea on Monday, August 29.
The 35,000GT Ro-Pax ferry Stena Scandica had earlier departed the Port of Norvik in Sweden and was sailing for the Port of Ventspils in Latvia with 241 passengers and 58 crewmembers when a blaze ignited in a reefer unit of an embarked lorry at 12:29 local time on Monday.
The ferry was 14 nautical miles off Gotland when the incident occurred, resulting in power loss and causing the vessel to slowly drift towards the coast.
A Swedish Coastguard boat and a helicopter and some Good Samaritan vessels diverted to the area in preparation for rescue operations while a tug was mobilised to tow the stricken ferry to port. However, the fire was successfully extinguished later that afternoon and two of the engines were subsequently restarted to enable the vessel to sail under its own power.
A number of passengers were evacuated by helicopter to a waiting Good Samaritan vessel as Stena Scandica sailed for the Port of Ninashamn in Sweden with a tug providing escort.
Stena Line said there are no injuries reported and all passengers were transferred to an allocated area on board as the firefighting effort was underway.
