Twenty-one fishermen were rescued on Monday afternoon after the fishing vessel Silver Dorado caught fire about 1 nautical mile off Noordhoek, Gqeberha. Local fishing vessels and the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) were involved in the operation.
NSRI said its Gqeberha crew was activated after an eyewitness reported the incident, and Silver Dorado issued a Mayday distress call.
Rescue swimmers and a rescue vehicle from NSRI Gqeberha were sent to Noordhoek, while the rescue craft Bay Guardian and Rescue 6 Alpha were launched to respond offshore.
When the NSRI craft reached the scene, they found that several nearby fishing vessels had already responded to the distress call and were assisting Silver Dorado’s crew, who were in the water close to their burning vessel.
The local fishing vessel Leguga launched her own life raft to assist 12 fishermen who had abandoned the burning vessel into the sea.
According to NSRI, at least five additional fishing vessels that intercepted the original Mayday and subsequent relayed distress calls also arrived on scene. By that stage, Leguga had recovered 12 fishermen from the life raft and from the water, the fishing vessel Raka had rescued 4 fishermen, Maverick had rescued 4, and Vulcan had recovered 1. In total, all 21 crew were taken on board local fishing vessels that went to assist.
NSRI reported that, after the skipper became aware of the fire on board, it spread so quickly that the crew could not deploy their own rescue craft.
All 21 men were then brought to the NSRI rescue base at the Port of Port Elizabeth, where EMS paramedics examined them. All were found to be uninjured and did not require medical treatment.
The cause of the fire on Silver Dorado will be investigated by SAMSA (South African Maritime Safety Authority) and by the police.
In a separate incident on Saturday, NSRI in Durban responded to a request for a medical evacuation from an American-flagged heavy-lift motor vessel for a 58-year-old male chief engineer suffering from a cardiac condition. The medical evacuation operation was completed at a hospital, where the man was taken for care.
