BERLIN (AP) — A fire broke out on in the engine room of an oil tanker off Germany’s Baltic Sea coast on Friday and all seven crew members were rescued, German authorities said.
The German Maritime Search and Rescue Service said it was alerted to the fire on the 73-meter (240-foot) -long German-flagged vessel, the Annika, shortly after 9 a.m. Friday.
The ship was off the coast between the popular seaside resorts of Kuehlungsborn and Warnemuende at the time. A rescue boat picked up the crew members, several of whom sustained slight injuries, about an hour later. They were taken to hospitals as a precaution.
The tanker was carrying about 640 metric tons of oil, according to Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies.
A tugboat at the scene worked to cool the outer plating of the Annika. Firefighters boarded the ship in the afternoon to assess the situation, and authorities decided to have it towed it to the nearby port city of Rostock to continue extinguishing the blaze. Experts determined that the ship’s condition was stable.
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