A fire broke out on the tug Cebu Hope off Okinawa, Japan, on Friday 30 October 2026. The Japan Coast Guard rescued five crew from a liferaft. The sixth crew member, the 65-year-old chief engineer, died. Rescuers found him in the engine room.
The tug is 237 gross tons. It was about 37 km north of the Ikema Island lighthouse, near Miyako Island. It was on its way from Japan to the Philippines. At about 08:15 local time, a ship agency employee reported the fire to the coast guard, Baird Maritime and Kyodo News report.
How the rescue went
A coast guard aircraft from Ishigaki flew to the area. At about 09:30 it found a liferaft. The raft was drifting about 300 metres from the burning tug, Baird Maritime says.
Baird Maritime says a coast guard helicopter lifted the five people from the raft between 10:00 and 10:24. All five are Japanese men. None of them was reported injured.
Patrol ships from Miyakojima and Naha also came. Special rescue staff from Haneda boarded the tug at about 15:50. At about 16:10 they found the chief engineer in the engine room. He was unconscious and badly burned, and he was confirmed dead. The fire was put out at about 17:20.
About the tug and the voyage
The Tsuneishi Group said the tug was formerly the Shojin Maru. It was transferred on 16 October to a company of the group in the Philippines. It left Onomichi, Japan, on 27 October. All six crew worked for the company hired to deliver the tug, the group said. Ship tracking (AIS) data showed the flag of Mongolia.
The tug reached Hirara Port on Miyako Island on 31 October. The coast guard is talking to the survivors to find the cause of the fire. It has not published a cause. It said there was no risk of an oil spill, the group said.
What to do now: fire on a small ship
The cause of this fire is not known. But fires on small ships and tugs follow a pattern: they spread fast, and the crew is small. These general steps can help you survive.
Raise the alarm at once and call for help early. Do not wait to see if you can put the fire out alone.
Count the crew at the muster point. Tell rescuers at once if anyone is missing and where that person was last seen.
Never go back into a burning engine room without breathing apparatus and a team. Smoke and heat can kill in minutes.
Close doors, vents and fuel valves to the engine room if you can do it safely. Use the fixed fire system only after everyone is out of the space.
On a delivery voyage, learn the ship before you sail. Find the fire alarms, fire pumps, fuel shut-off valves, extinguishers and the fixed fire system on the first day.
Know where the liferaft, EPIRB and SART are. An EPIRB is an emergency radio beacon. A SART is a radar transponder that helps ships and aircraft find a raft. Take a handheld VHF radio into the raft if you can.
Wear a lifejacket when you leave the ship. If it is safe, keep the raft near the ship. Rescuers usually search there first.
Before a delivery trip, tell your family the route, the ship's name and who your employer is.
Read our earlier report on a burning fishing boat off northern Japan, where 17 crew were rescued. We also reported on an engine-room fire off Bengkulu, Indonesia, where all 26 crew were saved. For emergency and welfare contacts, see Crewboard's useful links for seafarers.
Cover photo: The Japan Coast Guard patrol ship PL63 Yonakuni in the Port of Ishigaki, Okinawa, February 2015. The photo is illustrative and does not show a ship from this rescue. Photo: Yasu, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Sources: Baird Maritime: One dead after tug suffers onboard fire off Okinawa (3 Nov 2026), Kyodo News: 5 rescued, 1 missing after fire on tugboat off Okinawa (30 Oct 2026), Okinawa Times: Tugboat fire off Miyako Island, 5 rescued (30 Oct 2026, in Japanese).
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