South Africa's Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA), local charity National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), and various partners came to the aid of the 26-strong crew of a commercial fishing vessel after it caught fire off the country's Cape Peninsula on Friday, April 14.
The NSRI Simon's Town rescue station was activated by the NSRI Emergency Operating Centre (EOC) following reports of a 35-metre vessel ablaze eight nautical miles south of Cape Point at around 00:40 local time on Friday.
The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) and Telkom Maritime Radio Services were coordinating a response to the vessel ablaze and all shipping traffic in the area had been alerted in an all-ships alert on marine VHF radio to divert to assist if possible. A cargo vessel and another commercial fishing vessel had also diverted to assist.
The entire crew of the burning vessel, identified by the name Olivia Marie, abandoned ship into a liferaft. They were later rescued by the responding fishing vessel and no casualties have been reported.
At 17:30, NSRI Hout Bay and NSRI Kommetjie duty crews were activated at the request of the MRCC to respond to the casualty vessel and attempt to hold it offshore until a tug arrived on the scene. TNPA decided to take the stricken fishing vessel under tow as it was adrift in a north-westerly direction and was at risk of running aground in the vicinity of Scarborough south of Kommetjie.
The NSRI said its rescue boats were able to use sea currents to gently tow Olivia Marie away from land and hold it offshore prior to the tug's arrival, thus averting an environmental maritime disaster.
The tug and the damaged fishing vessel arrived at berth in Hout Bay on the morning of Saturday, April 15. Local firefighting teams then went about securing the interior compartments to prevent re-ignition of the blaze.