Italian ferry fire prompts safety concerns

The fire is reported to have broken out on a car deck of the ship, en route to Ancona in Italy from Patras in Greece. High winds and heavy seas, combined with thick smoke and low temperatures, hampered rescue operations. Additionally, lifeboats and life-saving equipment were reported to have been destroyed or damaged by the fire. Although more than 400 people were reported to have been taken off the ferry, 10 have so far been confirmed as dead and questions are being raised about the true number of people onboard.

It has transpired that a Port State Control inspection at Patras on the RINA-classed ship carried out on 19 December 2014 had found six safety-related deficiencies. According to the Paris MoU website, these included malfunctioning fire doors, missing batteries and switches for the emergency lighting system, unapproved search and rescue-related documentation, closing devices and watertight doors not as approved, and two unspecified deficiencies in life-saving appliances. None were considered sufficiently serious to warrant detention, however.

Although evacuation is, at last, complete, Italian officials are still unable to say how many people are missing. Some 80 of the rescued individuals were not on the passenger list, reinforcing suggestions that there may have been illegal immigrants on board, while it appears that there were inadequate records of those boarding or leaving during a stop-over at the Greek port of Igoumenitsa or of no-shows at boarding.

The Norman Atlantic was built in 2009 in Italy as Akeman Street for Ermine Street Shipping of the UK. She has been employed on mainly freight services for a number of operators, under different names, the present identity being given on a charter to Louis Dreyfus subsidiary LD Lines, between October 2013 and August 2014. She was then chartered to Caronte & Tourist until December 2014, when the charter was taken over by ANEK Lines. Since 2009 she has been in the ownership of Visemar Di Navigazione.

Meanwhile the same sea conditions were thought to be responsible for the loss of at least two Turkish seafarers from a cargo ship which collided with another, Belize-flagged, merchant vessel off Ravenna during the same night. It is thought that the Italian serach and rescue services were fully occupied dealing with the aftermath of the ferry fire when this incident occurred.

And in a further twist to the tragic events, two Albanian crew on a tug, recovering the Norman Atlantic, are reported to have lost their lives on 30 December when a towing line broke.