THATTA: Three fishermen received severe burns and another five jumped to safety when their boat caught fire in the Arabian Sea a few nautical miles off Mirpur Sakro coastline on Wednesday.

The five fishermen who jumped into the sea appeared to be fortunate enough to find a big wooden plank that helped them swim ashore. They were, however, almost fainted and needed immediate medical treatment.

Three of the eight fishermen, Sultan, Mustafa and Allah Warayo, belonging to the Cholani community, chose to stay on board to extinguish the fire. Although they somehow managed to accomplish the task, they received severe burns. One of them brought the boat back to Mirpur Sakro and take his other wounded fellows to the Sheikh Sultan Taluka Hospital but were refused treatment for unknown reasons. The fishermen were then taken to a private hospital, where doctors said all three patients had received around 60 per cent burns all over their bodies.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2014