A second fatal maritime incident has occurred in Bangladesh involving a major fire aboard a crude oil tanker owned by Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC).
Early on October 4th local time a fire broke out on the Banglar Shourabh (IMO 8508955), causing the death of one crewmember. The vessel was docked at the outer anchorage of Chittagong Port at the time.
Earlier, the vessel had lightered 11,055 tonnes of crude oil from the Omera Legacy, a bigger tanker, and was supposed to head towards the jetty. According to witnesses, the fire started on the ship’s deck near the mid-point.
The captain and 46 crewmembers evacuated. Three tugboats from the navy and four tug boats from the Coast Guard and Port Authority arrived to fight the fire, which was brought under control after four hours. One report indicated that 14 people were missing, but this was unconfirmed.
The Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) Bangladesh said that several of the injured crew members were taken to hospital for medical treatment. ISPR reported that the vessel was loaded 11,000 tonnes of crude at the time.
The fire followed relatively rapidly upon the September 30th fire broke onboard tanker Banglar Jyoti (IMO 8508943), which resulted in an explosion in the crude oil tanker that caused the death of three crew members. Both vessels were built in 1987 and are owned by BSC.
The authorities expressed concern that the back-to-back fires could be acts of sabotage to harm the country’s energy security. The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has issued directives to ensure special cautionary measures in all depots and installations of the energy sector across the country.
Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), Bangladesh Navy, and Bangladesh Coast Guard have also increased security to prevent any further incidents within the port limits.
Both the tankers were used for lightering bigger tankers anchored at the outer anchorage, and bringing crude oil to the Eastern Refinery Ltd plant.
The BSC formed an eight-member probe committee, led by its Executive Director Engineer Mohammad Yousuf, to investigate the fire incident. They were asked to submit a report within five days. The shipping ministry and department of shipping formed two separate committees as well.
1987-built, Bangladesh-flagged, 8,672 gt Banglar Shourbah is owned and managed by the Bangladesh Shipping Corp of Dhaka, Bangladesh. As of October 8th it was at anchor off Chittagong.
1987-built, Bangladesh-flagged, 8,672 gt Banglar Jyoti is owned and managed by the Bangladesh Shipping Corp of Dhaka, Bangladesh.