The fire suddenly broke out in the engine compartment. They were there Stefania Craxi and her husband Marco Bassetti on the 22 meter motorboat which caught fire yesterday 10 miles from the island of Elba and which then sank: the couple, together with the captain of the boat, were rescued by the harbor office of Portoferraio (Livorno).
The three, after having tried in vain to put out the fire, raised the alarm by lowering themselves into the sea life raft and waiting for help. They were sailing towards Marina di Campo on Elba after a final stop at Giglio and fortunately they did not suffer any physical consequences.
After a few hours the boat is sunk on a seabed around 200 meters in the open sea about nine miles away south-east of the Elban coast. The causes of the fire are still being examined by the Portoferraio harbor office, although given the rapidity of its spread and the fact that there were no unfavorable weather and sea conditions, it is likely that it was a malfunction or an accidental technical failure. In the meantime, we are continuing to monitor any possible pollution situations, including with a helicopter, given the fuel contained in the vessel’s tanks, but at the moment they do not appear to be evident. The rescue intervention by the Portoferraio coast guard took place around 1.30pm. The Portoferraio operations room was contacted around 12pm, when the unit commander detected the presence of a thick blanket of smoke coming from the engines. Within a short time the flames engulfed a large part of the vessel, forcing the occupants to abandon the unit, which then sank within a few hours.
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