Rescue teams across multiple Indonesian agencies are racing against harsh ocean conditions to extract trapped passengers from an engulfed passenger ferry that caught fire early Wednesday in waters near the popular tourist destination of Bali. As of the latest official updates, 106 people have already been pulled to safety by first responders and passing commercial vessels, leaving 25 passengers and crew still waiting for evacuation from the burning ship.
Muhammad Hariyadi, the leader of the Mataram Search and Rescue Office, confirmed that protecting the lives of all remaining people on board is the operation’s absolute top priority. The effort has been significantly hampered by treacherous sea conditions, with swells reaching as high as 4 meters (13 feet) that slow access to the burning vessel and put rescue crews themselves at risk.
According to official records from the Mataram search and rescue agency, the fire erupted at approximately 4:15 a.m. local time aboard the vessel named Putri Yasmin, which was traveling along a standard domestic route: from Padang Bai port on Bali to Lembar port on Lombok, the neighboring island in Indonesia’s West Nusa Tenggara province. Rescuers received the distress signal roughly 30 minutes after the fire started, and emergency personnel and rescue craft were deployed immediately to the scene.
Hariyadi noted that the large-scale rescue operation has received backing from multiple branches of Indonesia’s public services: the Indonesian navy has dispatched ships to assist, alongside local patrol boats, additional dedicated rescue craft, and a helicopter deployed to conduct aerial reconnaissance of the fire and search for any people who may have abandoned ship.
Official passenger manifest data from Padang Bai port authority confirms the ferry was carrying 114 passengers and 17 crew members at the time of the fire, as well as 44 motor vehicles and 53 motorcycles being transported between the islands.
As an archipelago nation made up of more than 17,000 separate islands, ferries are the primary and most ubiquitous mode of inter-island passenger and cargo transport for millions of Indonesians. However, maritime transportation disasters are a recurring issue across the country, with systemic poor enforcement of maritime safety regulations widely cited as the leading contributing factor in these deadly events.