GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/6 February) — Three crew members of a fishing boat were injured after it caught fire while docked on Wednesday morning near the shores of Alabel town in Sarangani Province.
Senior Fire Officer 4 Von Sancho, chief of the Alabel municipal fire station, said the boat’s crew were loading containers filled with gasoline at around 8 a.m. when the fire suddenly broke out.
He said the crew were then preparing the boat, which was docked about a kilometer away from the shores of Barangay Ladol, for another fishing trip.
One of the containers reportedly had a leak and eventually ignited through a nearby liquefied petroleum gas-fired cooking stove, he said.
“The crew members loading the gasoline did not notice that someone was cooking inside (the boat),” Sancho said in an interview over radio station dxMD.
He said three of the crew members identified as Superiano Sultan, Geovanni Pintuan and Rosvil Antonio sustained burns on parts of their bodies and currently being treated at the Sarangani Provincial Hospital.
Sancho said they received a report about the incident past 8 a.
m. through the Alabel municipal police station.
He said they rushed to the scene but most parts of the boat, which is classified as a mother fishing boat supported by smaller boats known locally as “pakura,” was already engulfed in flames.
Since their equipment could not reach the boat, he said they dispatched their personnel using pump boats to help put out the fire through bucket relay.
Sancho said the fire was totally extinguished at around 9 a.m., with the fiber glass-made boat considered as totally damaged.
He said the boat’s owner, who was identified as Amado Parilla, placed the damage at around P1 million. (MindaNews)