The thirteen sailors who survived a fire on the fishing boat named DNA-7031TS finally home safely. According to a few sailors, one missing person and two injured people were the most terrible occurrences of the accident.
The vessel is owned by Pham My Em, a Da Nang City resident. The boat has the captain and 16 sailors. On March 14, the boat suddenly faced a serious fire due to an explosion of a gas holder on the boat.
Pham Van Vui, a witness, said, “While angling for squids at sea, I heard a boom from the fishing boat, I promptly rowed closer to the boat and saved Le Ba Dung whose body was scalded by fire.”
About five hours later, Captain Le Van Chien of the boat named DNA-66192 detected the fire and quickly saved 15 sailors from the vessel, of which two were seriously wounded. The two injured victims were Captain Le Ba Dung and sailor, Dao Ngoc Mai.
Three hours later, all of the sailors were moved safely to a Chinese lifeboat. After departing China, the 13 survivors were transferred to a truck at Chinese Dong Hung border gate, just adjacent to Viet Nam’s Mong Cai border gate to re-enter Viet Nam.
Another sailor was rescued by the boat DNA-90015. However, during transportation, the sailor decided he was not badly injured and continued fishing on another boat.
The Chairman of Lien Chieu District People’s Committee, Mr. Duong Thanh Thi, informed that two injured sailors rescued by DNA-66192 were presently being treated in China. Currently, the rescuers have not yet found Mr. Le Van Ban, the only missing person of the accident.
The Lien Chieu People’s Committee will give compensation to Ban’s family in the amount of VND2 million (US$125), VND1 million (US$62.5) each to families of Dung and Mai and VND500,000 (US$31.25) to each of the other survivors.
