The operations of the Greek fire brigade and coastguard continue on Monday.
They hope to find survivors aboard the burning ferry as ten passengers are still missing off Corfu.
Thick black smoke still escapes from the Italian company Grimaldi's Euroferry Olympia, more than 72 hours after the start of the disaster on board the ship from which 281 people were rescued and a driver died.
Driver rescued on Sunday
"It's a very difficult operation" because of the heavy smoke and "considerable thermal pressure," said a spokeswoman for the fire department.
About 40 firefighters are taking part on Monday in operations to extinguish the fire and search for the missing some 3 km from the island of Corfu, assisted by tugs and coastguard boats, she said.
Most of the passengers were immediately rescued on Friday, one of them, a 21-year-old Belarusian driver, having been rescued on Sunday after fifty hours remained a prisoner of the ferry.
But the body of a 58-year-old Greek truck driver was found on Sunday in a charred truck in the holds of the boat: this is the first deceased victim recorded.
Unidentified passengers
The Euroferry Olympia caught fire at dawn on Friday en route to the Italian port of Brindisi, two hours after leaving the Greek port of Igoumenitsa, with 290 people - 239 passengers and 51 crew - checked in edge.
So far, 279 people listed on the manifesto have been rescued, as well as two illegal Afghan migrants, raising fears that other passengers may have boarded without being counted.
Ten drivers are still missing: seven Bulgarians, two Greeks and a Turk, according to the authorities.
According to several testimonies, many truckers prefer to sleep in their trucks during the night crossing between Greece and Italy, because of the unsuitable conditions in the cabins, according to the Greek truckers' union.
Control visit
“We have a lot of complaints about the living conditions of truck drivers” on board the ferries, said union president Akis Dermatis.
"They've been saying it for years, they can't all be crazy or liars," he said on public television ERT.
The Grimaldi company rejects these accusations, ensuring that its boats, their cabins and their public spaces are "regularly disinfected" and that no one is allowed in the garages during the crossing.
In accordance with international legislation, the ferry, built in 1995, had successfully passed a control visit on February 16, said the Italian group.
With “77 cabins (308 beds) and 409 seats, the boat can easily accommodate 239 passengers for a nine-hour trip,” according to a press release from Grimaldi, published on Sunday.
World
Greece: On the burning Italian ferry off Corfu, one of the twelve missing found alive
World
Greece: Twelve people still missing after the fire of an Italian ferry on Friday
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