UAE rescues crew of fire-ravaged oil tanker

By Eudore R. Chand

ABU DHABI 30 January 2020: The Federal Transport Authority – Land & Maritime, said Wednesday all concerned departments were working to extinguish a fire, which broke out on board an unloaded Panamanian-flagged tanker sailing 21 miles off the UAE after it had sent a distress call.

“Teams of rescue and emergency response at ports started providing the necessary help once they received the distress call and rescued the tanker’s crew,” the authority said in a statement to Wam.

The Federal Transport Authority confirmed the tanker is “not loaded with any oil shipments and early reports attribute the incident to an accident during maintenance operations.”