Bangladesh: 22 evacuated after major fire aboard product tanker 'Meghna Trader'

All 22 crew members aboard the product tanker Meghna Trader (IMO: 9321122) were evacuated after a massive fire broke out onboard the vessel.

Moored off the Chattogram anchorage since it arrived from the Dumai Port in Indonesia on May 26, the fire aboard the vessel was reported at about 7:30 AM on Thursday morning.

The crew members of the Bangladesh-flagged ship were immediately evacuated from the engine room, from where the fire is said to have broken out, and were said to be unharmed.

Two vessels from the Bangladesh Coast Guard—the Shyamol Bangla and the Promatta—soon responded to the incident, and were soon joined by two high-speed boats from the fire departments and shore teams.

Visuals from the scene released by Dhaka's coast guard showed multiple vessels attempting to extinguish the fire aboard the tanker.

While the Coast Guard and Navy vessels managed to douse the flames on the outside of the ship, the insides of the product tanker continued to be ravaged by the flames—which took much longer to extinguish.

However, the fire continued to burn the interior of the ship, due to which efforts to fully extinguish the fire took longer.

The ship is part of a fleet owned by Meghna Edible Oils Refinery, a subsidiary of the Meghna Group of Industries (MGI), one of Bangladesh's largest conglomerates.

While it is known that the vessel had been carrying edible oil cargo from Indonesia, official statements on the nature of the cargo vary, with some claiming that it had been carrying around 12,000 tonnes of palm oil, while others identified it as RBD soybean oil.

After the fire was fully put out, officials from the Chattogram Port Authority, the Bangladesh Coast Guard, the Bangladesh Navy and the vessel’s local agent USL remained onboard to monitor the situation and further investigate the exact cause of the fire.