LUMUT: A total of 25 crew members jumped into the sea to save themselves after the purse seine boat they were on caught fire in waters approximately 3.5 nautical miles from Jalan Pelantar Alep, Pantai Remis here on Monday (Sept 8), Sinar Harian reports.
In the incident, all crew members were rescued by a nearby fishing boat and brought to a nearby jetty, the Malay language daily reported.
Perak Fire and Rescue Department acting assistant operations director Shazlean Mohd Hanafiah told Sinar Harian that the Pantai Remis fire and rescue station received information about the incident at 11:06pm Monday.
He said that the Class C purse seine boat was about 80% destroyed by the fire.
"As per discussions with the owner, the boat, which had a diesel capacity of 10,000l, was ready to be scuttled.
"The boat was towed to the open sea with the help of a nearby fishing boat," he said on Tuesday (Sept 9).
Shazlean said that the firefighting operation continued at the owner's request, who needed the boat's wreckage.
"The operations leader directed the team to extinguish the fire using two 200-foot open water source hoses and a portable pump.
"The fire was brought under control at around 1:01am, with assistance from the Volunteer Fire Brigade (PBS), and was completely extinguished by 2:57am," he said.
