The emergency call was sent out at 12:38 on August 29 this year.

It was short and serious:

"This is Stena Scandica.

We have a fire on board”.

A nightmare according to the emergency services.

On the cargo deck, a lorry had started to burn on the ship, which was then just north of Gotland.

Sent out by rescue helicopter

The coast guard's ship steered towards the scene at the same time as the rescue service's special force was sent away with the Swedish Maritime Administration's rescue helicopter.

Once in place at the ship out on the Baltic Sea, they were winched onto the deck.

- When we got on board, the crew had managed to put out the fire, but the big problem was that we were drifting, says Kristoffer Wahter, regional operations leader at Greater Stockholm's fire service and operations leader for the MIRG force that carries out rescue efforts at sea. 

Together with the crew, they worked feverishly to resolve the acute emergency and meanwhile the 241 passengers had to don life jackets and prepare for the worst to happen. 

- The fire had burned off all the cabling used to communicate between the bridge and the engine room.

Both the main harness and the emergency harness.

That meant there was no maneuverability, says Jimmie Broth, coordinator of MIRG operations at the Coast Guard in Stockholm. 

“Could have been a total loss”

That particular day there was bad weather and strong winds that pushed the ship ever closer to Gotland.

Which everyone saw as a big risk.

For a distance from Gotland's northern end, the bottom depth decreases drastically.

From about 70 to 3 meters, and if the ship had reached there, it could have ended really badly.

- It could have been a total loss of the entire ship, says Jimmie Broth.

The coast guard states in retrospect that the disaster was only minutes away. 

- It was close.

We were on high alert on all fronts and had begun evacuating passengers, says Jimmie Broth.

But at the last moment the crew managed to connect past the burnt wiring and start the ship's main engines.

Stena Scandica was able to steer towards the open sea again.

- We were lucky that day, notes Jimmie Broth.

Watch the dramatic minutes on board in the video above.