6 crewmen suffer burns from explosion inside cargo ship's engine room

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Six crew members suffered severe burn injuries after an explosion, at 10:a.m. Friday, inside the engine room of M/V SF Adventure, a cargo vessel docked at the BREDCO Port, this city.

The city's Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) identified the victims as Ronilo Cabalcar, 22, Deo Norico, 32, Froulin Sembrano, 22, all of Iloilo; Pedrito Mahinay, 45, of Bacolod; Inocencio Sarbido, 26, of Cebu and Artemio Rosales, 21, of Leyte.

Chief Insp. Bartolome Beliran, city fire marshal, said the victims, who sustained second to third degree burns, were all rushed to the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital, this city.

The crewmen were welding a tank inside the engine room, and this may have caused the fuel tank to explode, said Beliran, adding that they were not wearing protective gears at the time of the incident.

Members of the Coast Guard and Philippine National Police (PNP) rushed to the scene to help.

The ship management, for its part, said investigation was still being undertaken to determine the cause of the explosion, noting that all manholes of the ship were open at the time.