2 seamen survive ship boiler blast

MANILA, Philippines – Two Filipino seamen arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport yesterday after suffering third-degree burns when their cargo ship’s boiler exploded as they were fixing it on Jan. 11.

Second engineer Dorotheo Moreno, 59, of Samar province; and boiler Jerry Alvarez, 48, of Bago City, Negros Oriental, planed in from Osaka on board Japan Airlines.

Moreno said the ship was sailing in waters off Kakogawa, Japan and they were repairing the boiler at around 10 a.m. on Jan. 11 when a spark from the furnace triggered the explosion. Both of them were a meter away from the boiler at the time.

“We were not treated at a hospital. They just changed the dressings on our burns while we were on the ship,” they said.

Yesterday afternoon, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration chief Carmelita Dimzon met Moreno and Alvarez at the airport and brought them by ambulance to the Manila Doctors Hospital on United Nations Avenue for treatment.

Officials from the Buwantala Manning Agency in Intramuros, Manila, which deployed Moreno and Alvarez, assured them the firm would shoulder their hospital expenses. –Rudy Santos (The Philippine Star)