ROME — Fire broke out today on an Italian ferry carrying more than 500 people to Sicily and all the passengers were taken by lifeboat to another ferry and a coast guard vessel, officials said.
Five passengers, including a pregnant woman, were taken to a hospital as a precaution.
The fire continued to rage in the car hold as the vessel was towed toward Palermo, the Sicilian capital, Sicily’s fire department said.
The vessel Vincenzo Florio, traveling from the mainland port city of Naples to Palermo, was 25 miles from its destination when the fire broke out in the car hold.
“They knocked on the door of the cabin and told us to get on deck,” passenger Stefano Friscia told Sky TG 24 television. “It was hard to breathe, the whole ship filled with smoke and they ordered the lifeboats lowered.”
The 526 passengers were taken onto the coast guard ship that came to the rescue and the other ferry, said Palermo port official Cosimo Seminara.
Most of the 35 crew members initially stayed on board to help put out the flames, Seminara said.
But the captain later ordered a complete evacuation because the flames were spreading, said Roberto Ardizzone, a spokesman for Sicily’s firefighters.
The cause of the fire was still being investigated.
The ship, which belongs to the Italian ferry company Tirrenia di Navigazione SpA, was being towed and was expected to reach Palermo later today.
Ardizzone said firefighters would have a better chance to stop it once the ship was in port.
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