Oil tanker catches fire in Karnaphuli; 2 crew members dead, 3 injured

Two crew members were killed and three others were injured as a fire broke out in an oil tanker at a private jetty on the southern bank of Karnaphuli river in Chattogram this morning.

The fire started at the engine room of inland oil tanker MT Iravati-1 at Super Petro Chemical Jetty around 6:30am when the crew was unloading condensate, reports our Chattogram correspondent quoting Secretary of Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) Md Omar Faruk.

On information, firefighting unit from Korean EPZ, three vehicles from Agrabad fire service and civil defence, two tug boats of CPA -- Kandari 1 and Kandari-10 -- and Bangladesh Navy's tug boat Passur rushed to the site and doused the fire around 9:00am, the secretary said.

Later, they recovered two bodies whose identities could not be known immediately, he added. 

They also rescued three crew members with burn injuries and sent them to Chattogram Medical College Hospital.

There is no report of oil spill, the CPA secretary said in the morning.

Operation is going on smoothly there as navigation channel is open, he said.