Banjarmasin, S Kalimantan (AntaranewsKalsel) - Four port workers and a health worker were killed allegedly by toxic gas in a hold of the MV SUMIEI vessel.
The four victims who were treated in the TPT hospital, were foreman Madi (55), Pelambuan citizen, Jani (48), David (30) and Syahrani (40). While a member of PT Pelindo's health team was killed when rushed to Suaka Insan Hospital.
One of the rescue teams, Untung Nur, said when he arrived, the condition of the ship was stale with a very strong sting. "When I want to go down, it smells very sting, and the ship feels stuffy, cannot breathe, it impossible to get on the boat," he said.
According to him, to come down to help the victims must be equipped with complete oxygen equipment. "There was no one daring to come down to help the victims, but luckily someone dared to come down, to save the five victims on board," he told.
Thanks to one such helper, the victims were finally able to be rescued and immediately rushed to the hospital, although in the end five of them died. "While the victim of the medical team, I took to Suaka Insan Hospital, and he died on the way," he said.
Meanwhile, one person who dared to help, his condition was also weak but could be helped.
Based on information from the field, the incident on the MV SUMIEI Ship which loaded with 600 tons palm kernel from Pelaihari to ship to Jambi with ship's captain Hervraf Yuno andreas,
The incident occurred on Saturday at around 20:05 pm when the hold opened by the victims and they immediately perform the discharging activity on the ship. Some of the crew had warned not to do the unloading for three hours, but two victims already down to the deck and suffocated hard to breathe.
Knowing their friends were limp, two others tried to help, and went down to the hold, but suffered the same fate. Until the port health team arrived to try to rescue the victims by descending to evacuate, but he was too suffocated.
After that, the joint emergency team came immediately to evacuate and the victims were taken to TPT hospital and Suaka Insan.