Artur Rets, the chief of a maritime rescue center in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, told Sputnik there were 27 crew members aboard when the Kapitan Chernov caught fire.
Most of them were rescued by another trawler but the captain and several assistants stayed behind to try to put out the flames.
"The attempts failed. There’s probably no chance now of containing the fire. The blaze is believed to have started inside the living quarters above the main deck and spread across the vessel," Rets said.
A member of the rescue center told Sputnik the remaining six crew members had been brought to safety aboard another vessel. "The evacuation has finished… No one has been hurt," the source said.
The Kapitan Chernov is anchored seven nautical miles off the southern tip of Kamchatka. The power to the stricken vessel has been cut but it has been kept afloat. The cause for the fire has not been determined.
