All the 19 crew were rescued at 8 PM Wednesday about three hours after a coal ship caught fire in the seawaters near Longkou Port in Shandong Province, according to the North China Sea Salvage Bureau.

Only one of them was injured.

Officials of the bureau said the cabin of the coal ship registered in Tianjin City suddenly caught fire 30 miles away from Longkou Port and the ship lost control at 4:20 PM.

Being informed of the accident, the bureau immediately dispatched two vessels to search for the coal ship. Later, the search and salvage bureau of the Chinese Ministry of Communications sent two more boats to help the search efforts. "Huateng", one of the two boats, arrived at the site at 7:27 PM and rescued the crew aboard the coal ship.

(Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2005)