2 dead, 1 missing in engine room blast of oil tanker in Barishal

The explosion occurred before unloading the oil, said an official of Meghna Petroleum

Two people have been killed, three others injured, and another gone missing following an explosion in the engine room of an oil tanker in Barishal's Kirtonkhola River.

Md Mizanur Rahman, a deputy director of Barishal Fire Service, said the incident took place in a tanker of Meghna Petroleum in the Charkauwa area on Thursday afternoon.

The injured were admitted to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital in the district.

The dead have been identified as Babul Kanti Das, 64, and 'Swadhin', 22. Meanwhile, 'Kashem' remains missing after the incident.

The injured are Md Kutub Uddin, 60, Md Rubel Hossain, 30, and Md Kamal Hossain, 60, of Chattogram’s Sitakunda Upazila.

The injured will be taken to Dhaka for better treatment, ‘Miraj’, a sub-inspector of Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital police camp, told http://bdnews24.com.

Kamrul Hasan, the manager of Meghna Petroleum's Barisal Depot, told http://bdnews24.com that the tanker named 'MT Ebadi-1' transported around 450,000 litres of diesel and petrol from Chattogram to Barishal.

“An explosion occurred in the engine room before the unloading of its cargo, causing casualties, but there was no damage to the oil.”

‘Kutubuddin’, who suffered burn injuries in the blast, said gas accumulates in oil tankers and it is necessary to extract it before starting the engine.

He suspects the explosion occurred when the engine was ignited without removing the gas during the unloading of the oil.

According to Mizanur, two bodies were recovered from the site of the accident, while one person is still missing and the search is ongoing in the river.

However, the fire service official could not immediately say what caused the accident.

Shahjahan Shikder, a spokesman for the fire service, said the rescue work was suspended at 7:30pm.