A major fire was raging on a Grimaldi-owned ropax off Greece on Friday, leaving eleven people unaccounted for and at least two trapped in the ship's bowels.

Nearly 280 passengers and crew from the 33,588-gt Euroferry Olympia (built 1995) were evacuated to the nearby island of Corfu, following a joint Greek-Italian operation involving navy boats, private vessels and helicopters about 10 nautical miles out at sea.

HTTPs://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyFTWog365g

Efforts were assisted by mild weather in the area with moderate winds blowing, reaching four on the Beaufort scale.

The blaze, however, was continuing unabated on board at 1400 GMT, about twelve hours after it erupted on the ship's car deck.

Three fire fighting tugs were still battling with the flames and more help was underway, Greek coastguards said in a statement on Friday afternoon.

Despite the extent of the fire, no fuel spill has been observed around the vessel and its stability doesn’t appear to be compromised, the Grimaldi Group said in a statement on its website.

Foremost on rescuers' mind was to try and save two truck drivers trapped in a sealed car deck compartment. Greek media reported late on Friday that firefighters managed to break through to them.

Greek coastguards said, however, that another 11 people from the Euroferry Olympia remained unaccounted for and were considered missing. Search and rescue operations in the waters around the vessel have been fruitless so far.

In a separate statement issued a few hours later, the Grimaldi Group said that some of those missing persons were traced on board and that operations to recover them were underway “with any means available on site”.

The Italian owner expressed its regret about the incident and pledged full cooperation with authorities to shed light on its causes.

The company has hired Dutch Salvor Smit Salvage to assist the vessel and organised on-the-spot assistance for the evacuees on Corfu.

A trip cut short

The ship’s master had recorded 239 passengers and 51 crew when the Italy-flag Euroferry Olympia departed from the Greek port of Igoumenitsa en route to Brindisi, Italy.

Also on board were 153 commercial vehicles, including trucks and semi-trailers, as well as 32 passenger vehicles.

The master alerted company headquarters at 04.12 local time that a fire had broken out.

“The ship’s crew immediately intervened to put out the fire with the means on board while the captain and the group staff, through the emergency response team, promptly notified the incident to the competent national and Greek authorities and took all necessary measures to manage the accident in the best possible way,” Grimaldi said.

The incident is strongly reminiscent of another accident in the same area eight years ago.

The ANEK-chartered, 26,900-gt ferry Norman Atlantic (built 2009) went up in flames in the same waters in December 2014, leaving at least 12 people dead.

According to Greek media on Friday, a Greek truck driver who survived the Norman Atlantic disaster was also among the Euroferry Olympia evacuees.

In June 2020, a Grimaldi Group ropax caught fire off Italy without causing injuries.

((This article was updated throughout to include confirmed number of people missing))