Oil tanker burns on the German Baltic Sea

The tanker “Annika” – loaded with 640 tons of oil – caught fire off the German Baltic Sea coast. All crew members were rescued. Three ships and several helicopters are trying to put out the fire.

The 73 meter long and twelve meter wide oil and chemical tanker “Annika” is burning northeast of Kühlungsborn in the Baltic Sea. As the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked Persons announced, all seven crew members were rescued from the ship. The organization said its emergency services were alerted by radio shortly after 9 a.m.

According to the accident command, some sailors suffered minor injuries. There are around 640 tons of oil on the “Annika”.

The tanker is anchored between Warnemünde and Kühlungsborn in the Bay of Mecklenburg and is also held in position by a tug.

Cloud of smoke can be seen from the coast

According to the accident command, three ships have started fighting the fire from the outside. Several fire brigade teams with helicopters are also on their way to the tanker. According to the police, an exclusion zone of three nautical miles was set up around the scene.

In images released by rescue workers, black smoke could be seen at the stern of the freighter. Nothing is yet known about the details or cause of the fire.

Be careful pollution

According to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Ministry of the Environment, the fire has not yet caused any environmental damage. The ministry said water contamination has so far been prevented.

Leaking heavy oil could “cause massive damage to the environment” due to the strong westerly wind, warned the director of the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Oliver Zielinski. “In the worst case scenario, this would be pushed into a very sensitive shallow sea ecosystem,” he told the dpa news agency.

The environmental organization WWF praised the rapid response of the rescue workers and firefighting teams.

The Baltic Sea is considered one of the busiest seas in the world. According to the WWF, around 2,000 large ships travel there every day. These include tankers with up to 100,000 tons of cargo on board. The accident off Heiligendamm was a “shot across the bow”.