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Boats burn and burn. Third fire in a week

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No sooner had the photo of the consequences of the monstrous fire in Malta that destroyed 19 expensive yachts been taken off our newsfeed, than information about two more burnt-out boats was received. The sad news came from completely different parts of the world: one of the affected vessels was in Australia, while the other was in Spain. In both cases, as a week ago, all survived, but 9 people swallowed smoke and were hospitalized.

The 30-metre yacht Astondoa caught fire on Tuesday in a dry dock on the Costa Blanca in the Spanish province of Alicante. Nine of the ten people on board were taken to hospital where they were soon dispatched safely to their homes.

The casualties were maintenance workers carrying out welding work in the engine room, which eventually caused the fire.

There were 25 firefighters working on extinguishing the fire. During the seven-hour firefighting effort, they poured over a million liters of water onto the boat.

The rescue team dared to come aboard when the interior, flybridge and wheelhouse were already engulfed in flames and removed the cat, which was peacefully sitting in the bow of the burning yacht.

The fire was extinguished, but reignited the following morning for reasons unknown.

The fiery flames brought down the hull and left practically nothing of the splendid vessel.

The €6m Astondoa was built by the Spanish yard Ordisi in 2002. Her hull and superstructure were made of fiberglass and her fuel tanks had a capacity of 12,600 liters of fuel.

An even less fortunate luxury yacht moored on the Clongolook River in New South Wales, Australia.

The fire damage was so severe that once firefighters got the fire under control, the boat was towed out to sea and sunk.

The 4 people sleeping on board, two of whom were the boat's owners, managed to get ashore quickly and were unharmed. The cause of the fire remains unknown.

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