20140912 Thailand Dive boat burns, sinks in Phuket
Thailand Sep 12 2014 “Shipboard”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 0 or unknown Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Dive boat burns, sinks in Phuket
Updated: 2014-09-12-11:06
A marine police officer is trying to control the blaze on Choke Somboon 15 dive boat in Phuket early Friday morning. (Photo by Achadtaya Chuenniran)
A 10-million-baht dive boat caught fire and was sunk in Phuket province early Friday. No one was injured.
At about 2am local marine police were informed of the fire on the Choke Somboon 15 boat moored in Chalong bay that was packed with yachts, speedboats and long boats in Muang Phuket district.
The boat was six metres wide and 25 metres long and belonged to Andaman Ocean Safaris Co.
The fire caused the cooking-gas and oxygen cylinders to explode and, with strong winds, marine firefighters took about two hours to control the blaze that gutted almost the whole of the wooden boat.
Police then towed the debris out of the channel of the bay and sank it. Damage is estimated at about 10 million baht and police are investigating the exact cause of the fire.
Investigators found that the boat had just served a group of divers and returned to the Chalong bay. Normally three people guarded it, but just before the fire only a Burmese worker was aboard.
Locals first saw sparks in the boat what was then engulfed in flames. The Myanmar man jumped into the sea to escape.
Websource:Bangkok post
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/431878/dive-boat-burns-sinks-in-phuket