Portable camera captures rescuers search of burning oil tanker Sanchi
A portable camera carried by four Chinese rescuers who boarded the burning oil tanker Sanchi on January 13 captured live moments of their search for survivors and the black box of the ship.
One day before the burning Iranian oil tanker exploded and sank, four Chinese rescuers got on the deck, retrieving two bodies and the ship's black box. The tanker burned for a week after a collision with Hong Kong freighter CF Crystal on January 6.
Xu Zhentao, one of the rescuers, described the scenario as the worst he had ever seen as the heat of blaze and strong smell of smoke made breathing difficult. And the sudden change of wind direction made things even worse.
At the critical moment, two rescuers, Lu Ping and Feng Yajun, located the black box, which was in the bridge. "We did not have time to think over, we just rushed in. We had to pull it off immediately and take it away," said Lu Ping, adding that the dense smoke gave a lot of trouble to their operation.
Rescuers also tried to enter the cabin to search crew members, but hot waves kept them outside. "We tried to enter the cabin and look around, but were hit by heat waves when approaching the door. We measured the temperature, which read 89 degrees Celsius, so we gave up," said Xu Jinling, a rescuer.
Rescuers finally managed to recover two bodies from the deck surrounded by toxic gas coming from the burning condensate. Their oxygen was used up just a few minutes after leaving the extreme conditions.
The oil tanker exploded and sank on January 14.
(Source: Reuters via CCTV+)
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