Coast Guard aids 9 fishermen who suffered severe burn injuries at sea

New Delhi, Apr 6 (PTI) The Indian Coast Guard has provided timely aid to nine fishermen, who suffered severe burn injuries after a fire incident and a resulting explosion onboard a fishing boat at sea, officials on Saturday said.
     Their boat had caught fire and sunk at sea on April 5, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) said in a statement.
     All the nine fishermen jumped into the water to escape but some suffered severe burn injuries in the process, it said.
     The Indian fishing boat "Durga Bhavani", damaged due to an explosion, sank at the location within a few minutes. The information regarding the fire and explosion was relayed to a Coast Guard ship by a nearby boat, which proceeded to pick up the survivors, the statement said.
     Acting swiftly, Indian Coast Guard Ship "Veera" on patrol off the Andhra coast saved the nine fishermen on April 5, it said.
     ICGS "Veera" had received a radio message from the nearby fishing boat about a raging fire onboard the Indian fishing boat (IFB) at the location, around 65 nautical miles from Visakhapatnam harbour.
     IFB "Durga Bhavan", an Andhra registered boat, had sailed from Kakinada harbour with nine crew on March 26, the ICG said.
     The boat had a fire incident, resulting in an explosion of a gas cylinder onboard, officials said.
     Sensing the urgency of the situation, ICGS "Veera" proceeded at top speed, reaching the location within a few hours to provide assistance to the survivors.
     "All nine survivors were shifted to ICG ship where they were provided first aid by a medical team," the statement said.
     Meanwhile, Coast Guard District Headquarters No. 6 in coordination with JD Fisheries Visakhapatnam promptly arranged ambulances along with medical teams to evacuate the critically injured crew of IFB, it said.
     "All the injured fishermen were shifted to King George Hospital, Visakhapatnam, for further treatment. Due to the swift response by the ICG ship, the entire rescue mission was completed within a short span of six hours," the ICG said.
     The Indian Coast Guard is the lead agency for providing assistance to fishermen at sea as well as the national coordinating agency for search and rescue at sea, the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)