Big Oil Spill Imperils Coast of Australia : Environment: A Greek tanker founders and spews out 2.9 million gallons of crude. Rich fishing grounds are threatened.

Officials battled what appeared to be the worst oil spill in Australia’s history Sunday after a Greek tanker caught fire and spewed at least 2.9 million gallons of light crude oil near rich fishing grounds in the Indian Ocean.

A 4-by-15-mile oil slick floated in storm-tossed seas about 18 miles off Australia’s west coast, officials said.

Richard Purkiss, chairman of the Oil Pollution Combat Committee of the state of Western Australia, called the spill “catastrophic.”

“This is the worst category you could possibly have,” he told reporters. “It’s a major, major spill. . . . I’m not aware of anything this size in Australia before.”

The stricken 97,000-ton tanker Kirki was being towed west away from the sparsely populated coast about 125 miles north of here Sunday evening, officials said.

“Apparently it’s still leaking,” said Ray Collins, a senior constable in Jurien Bay, a fishing village near the spill.

The ship’s captain radioed a Mayday call about 3:30 a.m. Sunday, saying the vessel was foundering, on fire and likely to sink. Officials said 10,000 to 20,000 tons of oil spilled from three ruptured tanks after the ship caught fire and its bow broke off at the first bulkhead.

Waves crashing over the bow apparently extinguished the fires, but it was not immediately clear what had caused the accident. The ship was carrying 80,000 tons of oil.

Fighting 29-m.p.h. winds and 16-foot swells, civilian and military helicopters winched all 37 crew members off the crippled ship at midday. There were no injuries.

Officials said containment booms, dispersants and other oil-pollution equipment is being flown in and will be deployed at first light today in hopes of preventing the oil from reaching nearby beaches and causing an environmental disaster.

The western coast is home to a multimillion-dollar crayfishing industry, the Nambung National Park and islands supporting large colonies of nesting sea birds and Australian sea lions.

Hundreds of people volunteered to help fight the spill in the endangered area, according to the state conservation department.

“Quite a few people are very upset,” said senior constable Ernie Churchman at a crisis center in the fishing village of Cervantes. “People know this kind of thing is rare. Unfortunately, sometimes it does happen.”

The government and the oil industry recently announced an emergency oil-spill response program to protect the famed Great Barrier Reef on Australia’s east coast. This is the first spill to test the strategy.

Purkiss said an oil tender tug will try to tow the Kirki more than 500 miles north to calmer waters, where salvage experts will try to transfer the remaining oil to another tanker. The towing could take five days, he said.