4 Die in Blast on S.D. Ship In Panama : Fishing fleet: Two dead crew members of the Odette Therese were related to the Virissimo family, well-known tuna fishermen.

Two members of a longtime Point Loma tuna fishing family were killed along with two others Thursday night when a U.S. tuna boat exploded, caught fire, and sank in the Panama Canal zone.

The news stunned the friends and family of Richard Balelo, 51, and Lionel Correia, 37, both of San Diego, whose bodies were found in the port of Balboa along with a Panamanian night watchman and a Korean crew member.

All worked aboard the Odette Therese, a San Diego-based tuna boat that had been docked in Balboa for net repairs. The boat, which had been scheduled to depart Tuesday to gather tuna in the Pacific, had a crew of 21.

According to a United Press International report, the boat exploded about 10:40 p.m. Thursday and sank about 3:30 a.m. in the port, near the entrance to the Panama Canal, north of Panama City.

UPI quoted Jaime Beitia of the National Port Authority as saying that the explosion probably started in the engine room, and that one of the crewmen may have been soldering. Beitia also said the boat contained an unknown quantity of ammonia, which may have contributed to the fire.

Besides Balelo and Correia, the other dead crew members were identified as Chung Suk Kwuon, 47, of South Korea, and Felipe Romero of Panama.

Robert Virissimo, the owner of the tuna purse seiner Odette Therese, lost both his uncle, Balelo, and his brother-in-law, Correia, in the accident.

Reached at his home Friday, Virissimo said both men had dedicated their lives to tuna fishing.

“My uncle was a captain in a tuna fleet, and my brother-in-law was my chief engineer for 10 years,” he said. “They were good men. I can’t tell you what happened out there. I can’t even speculate.”

Balelo is survived by a wife and five children. Correia is survived by a wife and three children.

As a deck boss, Balelo handled the entire tuna-fishing operation for Virissimo, he said. Correia was responsible for making sure the engines ran smoothly on the boat, which was capable of carrying up to 1,200 tons of tuna, he said.

Virissimo and his wife, Odette, for whom their 220-foot boat is named, are from a Portuguese-American fishing family that extends back for generations. Roland Virissimo, one of the country’s foremost tuna fisherman, had five sons, each of whom once owned a tuna boat.

Three were sold to foreign interests as the industry dwindled, according to August Felando, president of the American Tunaboat Assn.

Many in the family settled on Point Loma, where many tuna canneries once were.

The accident, which prompted firefighters from Balboa and the Panama Canal Commission to evacuate the area, is rare for the U.S. tuna fleet, Felando said.

“I’ve been here for over 30 years, and we have no record of any similar situation like this: an explosion that causes a vessel to sink,” he said. “We’re very fortunate not to have had many deaths in the fleet.”

The last major accident occurred 20 years ago, he said, when a fully loaded tuna seiner, 300 miles from San Diego, sank in bad weather. Several died.

Felando said the Odette Therese had just finished unloading tuna in Colombia and was in Panama for repairs when the accident occurred. Normally, the seiner makes stops at U.S.-owned canneries in Puerto Rico.

The Odette Therese, now 10 years old, was docked in Panama a year ago when U.S. Navy commandos hit a nearby Panamanian patrol boat. The tuna boat was unscathed, but another San Diego-based ship, the Samoa Star, was damaged.

Felando said Friday’s tragedy will just add to the distress that the U.S. tuna fleet feels. The industry is under attack from environmentalists, who say the U.S. tuna fleet is needlessly killing dolphins.

“Our fleet has already had a number of problems this year,” he said. “This certainly doesn’t help.”