PHANG NGA: Nine crew were taken to safety after a fishing trawler caught fire while refuelling in the Andaman sea early Sunday morning.
The Thai Maritime Enforcement Command Centre Region 3 (Thai-MECC Region 3) received a report about 3.30am that a Thai fishing boat named Sri Thong Pae 7 had caught fire while being refuelled and sunk 15 nautical miles south-west of Koh Surin islands, off Phang Nga.
Two Thais and seven Myanmar nationals were on board the 67-gross-tonne trawler. At about 4am, crews from another trawler, Charn Udom Sombat 1, saw the fire and evacuated everyone onto their vessels to take them ashore.
Fishing boat Sri Thong Pae 7 caught fire and sunk early Sunday morning. (Photo supplied via Thai-MECC Region 3)
The navy's air and coastal defense command later sent a speed boat to pick up the nine sailors from Charn Udom Sombat 1 and took them to a fishing pier in Khura Buri district, where the injured were taken to hospital.
Five crew members were injured in the fire. One of them, identified as Pairat Pala, a 54-year-old Thai engine mechanic, sustained serious burns.
The skipper of the sunken boat assumed that engine parts exposed to fuel oil vapours during the refuelling process might have been the cause of the fire.