Indian Coast Guard rescues nine fishermen suffering from burns at sea

New Delhi, 06 Apr 24:  Acting swiftly, Indian Coast Guard Ship Veera on patrol off Andhra coast saved all 09 fishermen who had suffered severe burn injuries after their boat caught fire and sunk at sea on 05 Apr 24.

 ICGS Veera had received a radio message from nearby fishing boat about raging fire onboard Indian fishing boat (IFB) Durga Bhavani at location around 65 Nm from Visakhapatnam harbour. IFB Durga Bhavani, an Andhra registered boat, had sailed from Kakinada harbour with 09 crew on 26 Mar 24. On 05 Apr 24, the boat had a fire incident resulting in explosion of Gas cylinder onboad. All 09 fishermen jumped into water to escape but some suffered severe burn injuries in the process.

The fishing boat, damaged due to explosion, sank at the location within a few minutes. The information regarding fire and explosion was relayed to Coast Guard ship by an nearby boat, who proceeded to pickup the survivors.

Sensing the urgency of situation, ICGS Veera proceeded at top speed, reaching at the location within a few hours to provide assistance to the survivors. All nine survivors were shifted to ICG ship where they were provided first aid by a medical team.

Meanwhile, Coast Guard District Headquarters No. 6 in coordination with JD Fisheries Visakhapatnam promptly arranged ambulances along with medical teams to evacuate critically injured crew of IFB. All the injured fishermen were shifted to King George Hospital, Visakhapatnam for further treatment. Due to swift response by ICG ship, the entire rescue mission was completedwithin a short span of six hours.

Indian Coast Guard is the lead agency for providing assistance to fishermen at sea as well as the national coordinating agency for Search and Rescue at Sea.