CHATTOGRAM, Sept 30: The bodies of three people have been recovered after a fire on board a vessel docked at Chattogram Port.
The explosion occurred on the oil tanker 'Banglar Jyoti', owned by the state-owned Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC), at the Dolphin Jetty of the seaport around 11 am this morning.
The victims have been identified as Nurul Islam, the chargeman at BSC Marine Workshop; Md Harun from Kishoreganj, a daily wage worker at BSC; and Saurabh Kumar Saha from Jhenaidah, an ex-cadet at Barishal Marine Academy.
Upon hearing the news, teams from the Fire Service and Civil Defense, Bangladesh Navy (BN), and Bangladesh Coast Guard (BCG) rushed to the spot.
The fire was brought under control around 1 pm after a two-hour effort with the help of eight units of the fire service, the joint fire unit of the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), BCG, and BN.
Kofil Uddin, an officer of the Fire Service and Civil Defense, stated that the joint efforts were able to control the fire. The firefighters of CPA, along with the Bangladesh Navy, Coast Guard, and Fire Service and Civil Defense officials, dispatched multiple tugboats and firefighting vessels to jointly control the fire.
Two bodies were recovered from the crude oil tanker 'Banglar Jyoti' hours after a fire broke out following the explosion.
Managing Director (MD) of Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL), Engineer Sharif Hasnat, said, "The ship transported oil from a large tanker anchored in the sea and brought it to the jetty. It is then supplied to ERL. After the fire was brought under control, two bodies were recovered from there."
President of Bangladesh Seamen's Association, Abdul Wadud, said that Shourabh and two other workshop technicians, Harun and Nurul Islam, were missing until this evening.
Secretary of CPA, Omar Faruk, said, "The fire incident took place following an explosion on the ship's bow at a state-owned BSC crude oil-carrying old ship near Dolphin Jetty number seven of the city's Patenga.
The tanker was unloading around 11,000 MT of crude oil from large vessels anchored outside the port and brought it to ERL at Patenga."
However, the cause of the fire was yet to be known as of Monday evening.
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