MIRI: Two crew members were injured while another was reported missing after an oil and gas support vessel, MV GEOS, caught fire in the sea off Kuala Baram here early yesterday morning.
In the 3.15 am incident, the 38 crew members on board jumped into the sea when the vessel caught fire.
Miri District Maritime Director, Captain Md Fauzi Othman informed that the two injured victims were second engineers Muhammad Hafiz Ismail and Khairul Isma Ismail.
Muhammad Hafiz’s body was burned 20 per cent while Khairul Isma, 35, was wounded on the forehead, lips and face.
He said both the injured victims were taken to Miri Hospital for further treatment.
“Currently, the identity of the lost victim has not been disclosed and we have launched a search and rescue operation (SAR) to locate the victim,” he said in a press conference here, yesterday.
He said the two maritime boats involved in the SAR were KM Siakap and Penggalang 23, with the help of three other private vessels – Hisyam 8, Neopetro 18 and Jati 8.
Also present at a press conference yesterday was Piasau Assemblyman, Dato Sebastian Ting.
Fauzi said he immediately directed the Penggalang 23 with six members to the scene after an emergency signal was detected from the sea off Kuala Baram.
When Penggalang 23 arrived at the scene, the ship was still on fire and all the crew members had plunged into the sea to save themselves.
The fire was fully extinguished at 8am with the help of two other vessels – MP Perdana Frontier and MP Nautica Aleesya.
“The crew members who jumped off the vessel were rescued. There were one Thai and five Indonesian citizens.
“The rest, including the missing crew member, were either locals or from Peninsular Malaysia,” he said.
The vessel was registered under AGEO Marine Sdn Bhd, based in Kuala Lumpur.
Meanwhile, the survivors arrived at the Marina Bay Jetty around 1.30 pm before they were taken to the Petronas office in Lutong.
