Fire-stricken "Sofia" drifts near Polish coast; rescue underway
After a nighttime fire and the evacuation of the five-member crew, the Swedish commercial ship "Sofia" is drifting in the Baltic Sea about 56 kilometres from the Polish coast. According to the authorities, vessels are already on their way to secure the ship.
The "Sofia" set sail from Ustka on Thursday afternoon, heading towards Sweden without cargo. In the evening, a fire broke out, forcing the crew to call for help. The Polish Press Agency reported that around 3:20 PM Eastern Time, the Polish Maritime Search and Rescue Service received information from the Danish authorities about the fire on board the ship.
The vessel was near the island of Bornholm, in Danish waters. Despite sending a helicopter from Darłowo, it was the Danish and Swedish helicopters that reached the site first, evacuating the entire five-member crew onto a Danish frigate. Polish rescue services participated in the operation as support.
SAR spokesman Rafał Goeck told PAP that two Polish vessels are heading towards the drifting "Sofia": the multipurpose rescue ship "Kapitan Poinc" and the tugboat H8 from the 3rd Flotilla of the Navy. They are expected to reach the ship on Friday.
Services are already heading to the lone drifting "Sofia"
Agnieszka Wieczorek, spokeswoman for the Maritime Office in Szczecin, stated that "Sofia" is located 60 kilometres from the coast at the level of Koszalin and is drifting at a speed of 2 km/h. The ship is being monitored by an automatic identification system, and the situation is being continuously reported by the captains of passing vessels and Polish and German patrol planes.
The drifting ship currently poses no threat to navigation, and the Hydrographic Office of the Navy has issued appropriate navigation warnings. The causes of the fire on "Sofia" are still unknown. The shipowner has ordered a tugboat from Rostock, Germany, which will secure and tow the damaged vessel to a chosen port or repair shipyard.
At the time of the incident, there were difficult weather conditions in the Baltic— wind from 5 to 7 on the Beaufort scale, reaching speeds of up to 61 km/h (about 64 km/h). The "Sofia" is a commercial ship built in 1986, with a total length of 72 metres. It last visited Ustka on November 28 with a cargo of aggregates.
