The 11 crew members of the “Tresta Star”, the Mauritian ship which ran aground in Saint-Philippe on Thursday night, were rescued by firefighters and brought back safe and sound on dry land, after more than 6 hours of intervention, in difficult weather conditions with Batsirai.
•
It took more than six hours of intervention to recover the entire crew of the “Tresta Star”, this Mauritian tanker which ran aground on the night of Thursday February 3, around 9 p.m., in Saint-Philippe.
Prefect Jacques Billant greeted “the perilous, very technical and unprecedented operation to rescue the 11 sailors from the ship“carried out by the emergency teams mobilized on the spot.
The 11 survivors are safe and sound and they were all able to return to the mainland, this Friday, February 4, in the early morning. They have since been taken to the Tremblet accommodation center.
GRIMP firefighters mobilized
The rescue operation carried out by the firefighters proved to be particularly delicate. First, because the ship is half embedded on the reefs of the 2007 flow, between the tip of Tremblet and the tip of Brûlé. Then, of course, because of the difficult weather conditions linked to the effects of cyclone Batsirai off the northern coast of Reunion.
Despite the rain, the wind and a swell of 7 to 8 meters, a firefighter from the GRIMP, the Hazardous Environment Intervention Group, was able to board the ship and get in touch with the crew.
The GRIMP974 team after the rescue of the Tresta Star
•
Another 2 km of “gratons” to walk
It was necessary to reassure the 11 sailors and secure them, before getting them off the boat one by one, using a harness. An operation that will have taken time, not to mention that the survivors do not speak French. But by 4 a.m. this Friday, they were all off the ship.
It was then necessary to bring the castaways back to the operational PC installed from 10 p.m., Thursday evening, on the lava route. The emergency services had previously established “a line of life” between this PC and the ship stranded in the rock. It was thus necessary to walk more than two kilometers in “the gratons” to find the road shortly before 6:30 am.
47 firefighters mobilized in total
In anticipation of this “forced hike”, the firefighters descended with clothes, blankets and above all suitable shoes for the eleven sailors, who were mostly barefoot. They also brought them food and drink.
On their arrival at the operational command post, the survivors were examined by the SDIS medical teams before being transferred to the Tremblet accommodation centre.
In total, 47 firefighters were mobilized for this rescue operation. In addition to the SDIS teams, the gendarmerie was also mobilized and in particular the men of the mountain rescue squad (PGHM) and the GIGN.
The firefighters are preparing to transfer the 11 survivors of the shipwreck as soon as they arrive on the Rn2 after a 2km hike in the gratons of Coulee 2007
•
No risk of pollution, according to the authorities
In the course of the evening, an attempt to tow to avoid the grounding of the ship at the tip of Tremblet had been undertaken, but without success. The authorities were quickly reassuring about the risk of pollution.
“This tanker is sailing empty“, had already indicated last night the Minister of Overseas, Sébastien Lecornu on his Twitter account. “There is therefore at this stage no risk of serious maritime pollution by hydrocarbons“.
A reconnaissance mission at daybreak
The prefecture then gave additional details during the night from Thursday to Friday: “The ship is not carrying any goods and contains less than 8m3 of propulsion diesel (light and volatile), the majority of which should disperse without major risk to the environment.“.
An armed reconnaissance mission by a team of experts (National Navy, DMSOI, SDIS and Gendarmerie) was to be undertaken at daybreak on the grounding site in order to report on the situation. It will then be necessary to determine how the ship will be evacuated from the Tremblet reef.
The “Tresta Star” is a tanker used to transport petroleum products. Its length is 74 meters, its width 16 meters. Built in 2019, its loading capacity is 2,924 tons.