Philippines Ferry Fire: Five killed, 87 missing after vessel catches fire near Palawan

At least five people have been listed dead, while 87 other individuals are still missing, following a ferry fire near the Philippine province of Palawan, the country’s coast guard said Sunday.

The Ferry fire started on the M/V June Aster on Wednesday evening about 2.2 kilometres offshore off a popular tourist destination. Five have been rescued ashore, rescue is on going, coast guard officials said.

Emergency personnel responded to the incident and the facts that caused the accident are captured in a video released by the coast guard that clearly depicts the boat afire.

So far, 42 were saved, including 38 passengers and four crew members, said Coast Guard Captain Noemi Cayabyab. According to the latest available data, however, 87 people were still missing.

The vessel had a total passenger/crew complement of 134 people. These were “provisional” and may be adjusted when rescue teams continued to search, Cayabyab said.

Efforts to get information from the rescued have also been hampered. Cayabyab said so far, they had not been able to contact survivors to confirm more details of the incident.

Fire fighters continued to contain the fire and search and rescue operations were launched to find anyone not identified as missing.

According to tracking data from MarineTraffic, the M/V June Aster had already left Manila when the incident occurred.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire. But as rescue operations continue, more information is expected to be gathered from survivors and investigation is expected to be conducted.