Fire forces passenger ferry to return to Italy
A refrigerated truck caught fire in the garage of a passenger ferry traveling between Italy and Greece late on Friday night, forcing the ship to return to Italy. The ship’s automatic sprinkling system put out the fire and none of the 273 passengers or 90 crew members was injured. The Blue Horizon was traveling from Bari to Igoumenitsa in northwestern Greece when the fire broke out at 11.40 p.m., forcing the ship to turn back to the Italian port of Brindisi. Blue Star Ferries, the owner, reported that the fire had been extinguished automatically and had not spread. The Blue Horizon, without passengers, arrived in Patras yesterday where it will remain until the damage is repaired, the Merchant Marine Ministry said. The passengers included 157 Greeks, 30 Germans, 21 Italians, 16 Austrians, 11 Bulgarians, 10 Americans, eight Romanians and citizens of New Zealand, Albania, Turkey, Cyprus, Korea and Britain.
