KOCHI: A major fire broke out on a fishing vessel anchored near Kalamukku fishing harbour in Vypeen on Sunday. None suffered injury in the blaze. The fire occurred on the boat ‘Arogya Anna-1’, owned by Kulachal native Ajay.
A Fire and Rescue Services official said, “The boat was partially gutted before we could douse the fire. The loss is estimated to be around `25 lakh. We were alerted by 12.34pm and three fire tenders from Club Road and Vypeen rushed to the spot.
A portable pump was also used to spray water continuously from the Vembanad lake.” The personnel managed to douse the flames just in time, as the fire threatened to spread to another boat, ‘Kripamol’.
“There were several boats anchored nearby, and we were able to douse the flames on time. Only the superstructure was damaged, while the 500-litre capacity diesel tank remained intact. A major mishap was thus averted,” the official added.
The officials added that the crew of the boat was cooking food using gas cylinder in a room near the wheelhouse (near the steering). “We suspect that careless use of gas cylinder by the crew caused the mishap. Further probe is on,” he added.