Forty-six Japanese cars burnt as a result of fire on board a Russian vessel

During the fire, which took place Wednesday on board the Russian scientific vessel The Morskoy Geophysic (The Marine Geophysicist), 46 Japanese cars and over 1000 tires became worthless.

The Vladivostok sea rescue and coordination center stated that the vessel was making a commercial voyage from Japan to the Russian city of Vladivostok. The fire started at night of November 7, when the vessel was 15 miles off the coast. Thirty-nine members of the crew did their best to extinguish the fire, but it was in vain, so they sent a SOS signal and turned to the port of Otara, RIA Novosti informed. Japanese rescuers came to help the Russian ship: a part of the crew was evacuated on board the Japanese rescue boat and the others continued struggling with the fire. Four members of the crew suffered as a result of the fire – they were hospitalized with slight burns and carbon monoxide toxic gas poisoning.

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2001/11/08/33564.html