‘Lack of skill responsible for ship explosions’
Staff Reporter :
The fire service has blamed the negligence of the shipping authorities for the second round of explosion in the oil tanker Sagar Nandini-2 in the Sugandha river of Jhalkathi.
Director of Fire Service and Civil Defense Lt. Col. Tajul Islam Chowdhury has alleged that terrible explosions are being taken place one after another because of a lack of skill and discretion of the shipping staffs.
The fire service director made the remark while talking to journalists in the area adjacent to Kheyaghat of Jhalkathi Municipality on Tuesday afternoon.
He also said that the authorities have been asked to appoint skilled workers for operating ships.
At present the river route of Jhalkathi is safe. Navigation has also been normalized. The damaged vessel has been declared out of danger.
He said that 12 units of the fire service have tried their best to extinguish the fire with foam. At present the scene is quite safe.
Last Saturday (July 1) an explosion in the engine room of the Sagar Nandini-2 ship anchored in the Sugandha river left four people dead and five others burnt. After completing the rescue operation, the ship exploded again on Monday evening while removing the oil. A total of 14 people including 12 policemen were burnt. Nineteen people were burnt and four people were killed in the two explosions.
The reason for the second explosion is believed to be a submersible pump explosion.
The injured in the second round of blast are – Police Constable Shaukat, Dweep, Palash Mollah, Mehedi, Naqeeb, Saiful, Lipan Gain, ASI Ganesh, SI Abdul Hakeem, Naik Siddique, SI Mostafa Kamal, Helal Uddin, ship’s staff Sharif and Qayyum.
It is to be noted that Sagar Nandini-2 vessel sank in Tulatuli Kathirmatha area of Bhola on its way to Padma Oil Company depot at Chandpur with oil from Chittagong port on 25 December 2022. Besides, on November 12, 2021, an explosion occurred in the Sagar Nandini-3 ship of the same company at the same place in Sugandha river. Five people were killed in the blast.
