2 tankers catch fire during LPG transfer in Bay
Two tankers caught fire during ship-to-ship transfer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at the anchorage off Kutubdia, Chattogram, early yesterday, in the third incident of vessels catching fire in two weeks.
The crew of the Captain Nikolas, a 230-metre Tanzania-flagged vessel, put out the flames around 3:00am, almost three hours after the ship caught fire, according to Chittagong Port Authority (CPA).
The fire at the B LPG Sophia, the smaller tanker, was not fully extinguished as of filing this report at 10:00pm yesterday.
CPA officials said firefighters were struggling to extinguish the blaze because the gas had not burned out.
The CPA formed a nine-member probe committee led by CPA Member (harbour and marine) Commodore M Fazlar Rahman to find the cause of the fire.
The committee was asked to submit its report in five work days.
The Panama-flagged B LPG Sophia, which is chartered by Bashundhara Group, was engaged in ship-to-ship transfer of LPG from the Captain Nikolas when the fire broke out.
The 18 crew members of the 117-metre B LPG Sophia, two mooring men, three watchmen, and eight guards from the Captain Nikolas who jumped into the sea were rescued by Toofan Express, a tugboat owned by Bashundhara.
Of the crew members, nine are from Bangladesh, eight from Indonesia, and one from India.
The Toofan Express was half a nautical mile away around 12:25am when its captain Nazrul Islam was notified about the fire.
"It took almost three hours to find all the men. Some of them had minor injuries ... ," Nazrul said, adding that the men reached Chattogram around 6:00am.
Samidul Hoque, proprietor of Seawave Marine Services which is the Bangladesh agent of the Captain Nikolas, said around 3,325 tonnes of LPG were to be transferred from the Captain Nikolas to the B LPG Sophia.
Jashim Uddin, chief operating officer (marketing) at Bashundhara Group, said between 2,600 to 2,700 tonnes of LPG was transferred to the B LPG Sophia when the fire broke out.
Captain Jahirul Hoque, commander (east zone) of Bangladesh Coast Guard, said the fire on the B LPG Sophia was mostly under control by daybreak, but the rear side of the tanker kept reigniting, possibly due to gas coming off the tank.
Bangladesh Navy's BNS Shapla, Bangladesh Coast Guard's Promotto, and CPA's Kandari-3, Kandari-4 and Kandari-10, were continuously spraying water on the B LPG Sophia, officials said.
The Captain Nikolas arrived at the anchorage off Kutubida on October 6 with 42,925 tonnes of LPG. The lightering operations began four days later.
Thanks to the prompt response by its crew, it still has around 36,000 tonnes of LPG, Samidul said.
Interport Ship Agents Ltd is the local agent of the B LPG Sophia. Abu Faisal, its general manager, said the insurer would be engaged soon to assess the damage of the cargo and vessel.
Last week, the LPG Operators Association of Bangladesh (LOAB) wrote to the CPA, alleging that the Captain Nikolas and another LPG-carrying tanker titled the Gaz GMS misreported the country of origin of the gas.
The GMS arrived on October 3 with 33,000 tonnes of LPG.
LOAB wrote that the LPG could be from Iran, which faces numerous sanctions, and urged CPA to look into the matter.
On October 9, the authorities formed a committee with officials from the CPA, Bangladesh Customs, Coast Guard and Mercantile Marine Office to investigate the matter.
The committee members visited the ships on Wednesday to examine the documents and interrogate the crew.
According to the papers, the Captain Nikolas brought the cargo from Oman and Gaz GMS from the UAE, said a member of the committee.
The committee will identify the vessels' track and contact the authorities of the Oman and UAE ports.
September 30 and October 5, two other oil tankers, the Banglar Jyoti and Banglar Shourabh, caught fire and got damaged. Four people were injured in the incidents.
Three committees are still investigating what caused the fires.
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