Nine fishermen suffer burns as cylinder in boat explodes near Vizag

As many as nine fishermen suffered injuries when their boat, Durga Bhavani, caught fire at mid-sea on Friday. According to reports, the incident occurred when a cylinder in the boat exploded when the men were out fishing. The cylinder blast, during which five of nine fishermen sustained severe burn injuries, occurred at a distance of 65 nautical miles from the Vizag coast.

Upon receiving the information, the personnel of the Indian Coast Guard Ship (ICGS) Veera, rushed to the place and brought the injured fishermen to the naval dockyard. Later, they were admitted to the King George Hospital (KGH) in Maharani Peta.

The cylinder exploded at around 2:30 pm on the fishing boat, in the Bay of Bengal between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada, said an official from the ICGS. It was also said that the fishermen could only reach the shore at 8:00 pm. Immediate first aid was given to the individuals before transporting them to the hospital.

The boat belongs to the Kakinada harbour and all the crew members were also from the same city.

The official Indian Coast Guard account took to the social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), where they posted about the incident:

Preceding this event, there was another heart-gripping incident involving fishermen in Vizag earlier this week. It was only on Monday evening that six fishermen went missing off the coast of Visakhapatnam for a whole 24 hours, the reason being an overturning of their boat due to high waves at sea. They returned safely on Wednesday morning. With this happening, and the cylinder blast, taking place one after another, it has been a perilous week for fishermen in Vizag.

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This article is written by Senior Journalist Lakkoju Nagesh Babu.