The World : Fire Kills 2 on Soviet Liner

Fire broke out aboard a Soviet cruise ship in the Sea of Japan, killing two crew members and forcing 300 schoolchildren into lifeboats for two hours before help arrived, the official Soviet news agency Tass reported. The fire began in the engine room of the Turkmenia shortly after midnight as the ship was sailing about 60 miles off Nakhodka. The children and some of the crew were put into boats, and the rest stayed behind to fight the fire, Tass said. The blaze came less than three months after the Soviet cruise liner Admiral Nakhimov collided with a freighter and sank in the Black Sea with a loss of 400 lives.