This evening (past midnight local time), the Costa Luminosa cruise ship responded to a ship on fire off the Coast of Greece.  The Costa ship reportedly aided in the rescue of crew members from the merchant vessel.

The ship fire was tweeted by Angel David / @angeltem.

The tweet reads: “cruiser rescuing another ship. Fire aboard a merchant vessel in the middle of the night.”

Translated, the tweet reads: “think the boat on fire in Kithira, Greece is the 1 built in 1986 and with 79 meters.”

The Costa Luminosa apparently was involved, along with other vessel which responded to the fire, in rescuing the crew members from the burning vessel.

A passenger on the cruise ship commented on the rescue operations and posted a video on her Facebook page.

November 21, 2018 Update: According to A R X Maritime, a “Turkish Cargo Ship, Kilic 1, caught on fire in the evening of November 20, approximately 8 nautical miles southeast of Cape Matapan, near the southern coast of Greece. The vessel was en route from Tunisia to Turkey when a fire broke out in the engine room. Kilic’s crew of 11, all Turkish nationals, did not manage to put the fire under control, and thus were forced to abandon ship. Italian cruise ship, Costa Luminosa, arrived at the scene after responding to Kilic’s distress call. The crew all boarded the cruise ship and are all considered to be safe and in good health. Greek maritime authorities arrived upon the scene in force, with over six Coast Guard vessels, a navy helicopter and multiple tugs that attempted to put out the fire.”

If you have information about the fire and rescue of the crew of the burning ship, please leave a comment below or join the discussion on our Facebook page.

Photo credits: Angel David / @angeltem.