A fire aboard a container ship off Toulon injured three people on Tuesday, two of them seriously burned.
The fire broke out due to "a casing explosion on the boat's engine", added a spokesperson for the Toulon maritime prefecture by telephone, which "severely damaged the boat's propulsion". .
In this explosion, three members of the boat's crew – out of about twenty – were injured.
Two seriously burned were transferred to the Sainte-Anne military hospital in Toulon, and the third less seriously injured in Sainte-Musse.
Controlled fire
At the start of the afternoon on Tuesday, the fire was under control, according to the maritime prefecture, and the towing of the boat was about to begin.
The fire did not generate any maritime pollution, reassured the prefecture.
The container ship MSC Rachele, whose flag is Panama, was about 20 nautical miles (about 40 km) south of Cape Cépet (Var) at the time of the accident, en route to the port of Fos-sur- Sea (Bouches-du-Rhône), according to a press release from the maritime prefecture.
Significant resources were mobilized, under the coordination of Cross Med, in particular to evacuate the wounded, with a Dauphin helicopter from the 35F flotilla, an NH-90 helicopter from the 31F flotilla, medical teams from the mobile emergency structure and resuscitation (SMUR) of the Var and the crew of the amphibious helicopter carrier (PHA) Tonnerre of the French Navy, which was near the MSC Rachele.
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