Indonesia completes ferry fire rescue operation, five dead, agency says

SURABAYA, Indonesia, Aug 4 (Reuters) – Indonesian rescuers have evacuated 233 of the 238 passengers and crew trapped on a ferry that caught fire off the country’s Madura island on Sunday, the search and rescue agency said on Tuesday, with the total death toll at five.

Here are the details:

• The KM Mutiara Sentosa 2 was travelling from Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya in East Java province to Makassar city in South Sulawesi before it caught fire on Sunday, authorities had said.

• Mohammad Syafii, chief of the country’s search and rescue agency, told reporters that rescuers determined that the total number of people in the ferry’s manifest stood at 238, including both passengers and crew members.

• Authorities said earlier on Monday that the total number of passengers and crew stood at 271.

• A total of five people died in the accident, Syafii said.

• An investigation into the cause of the fire is underway, Syafii added.

• While all the passengers and crew on the manifest have been accounted for, authorities may resume the search if there are family reports of relatives who have not been found, Syafii said.

• All clad in life jackets, the passengers were stranded for hours at sea, while some fell into the water from a 10-metre height, Syafii said.

• Indonesia, an archipelago of around 17,000 islands, relies heavily on ferries as a key mode of transportation, with sea routes more affordable and readily available than air travel.

• However, safety standards are not always strictly enforced, and accidents are relatively frequent.

(Reporting by Prasto Wardoyo; Writing by Stanley Widianto; Editing by David Stanway)