Ships, boats and aircraft from Sri Lanka and India were escalating efforts to douse an oil tanker fire burning for a second day yesterday, as officials warned of potentially huge environment damage on Sri Lanka’s coast if the ship leaked or exploded.
The tanker was drifting and could reach the coast of the Indian Ocean island nation within 38 hours, Sri Lankan Marine Environment Protection Authority General Manager Terney Pradeep said on state television.
The fire has not spread into the tanker’s oil storage area and no leak was reported, the Sri Lankan navy said, but Terney warned of the potential damage if a leak or explosion occurred.
Photo: AFP / Sri Lankan Air Force
“The damage could rise further if the ship explodes due to the fire. If that happens, there could be a huge damage,” Terney said in the telecasted statement.
The Panamanian-registered MT New Diamond was about 70km east of Sri Lanka when the fire started on Thursday in an engine room boiler.
One crew member was injured in the fire, and another first described as missing was later confirmed to have died in a boiler explosion.
The tanker’s 23 crew are 18 Filipinos and five Greeks.
The dead and injured crew are both Filipinos.
The injured crew member is in hospital, but his condition is returning to stable, Sri Lankan navy spokesman Indika Silva said yesterday morning.
Terney said the ship was drifting toward the coast at a speed of 1.3kph.
“If an oil spill happens after it reaches near the coast, there could be a huge damage on the beach,” he said.
The navy sent four ships in response to the fire alarm on Thursday, and other ships and aircraft from Sri Lanka and India have joined the firefighting efforts.
A Sri Lankan air force helicopter was picking up seawater in a bucket then flying back to dump the water on the burning tanker, Sri Lankan air force spokesman Group Captain Dushantha Wijensinghe said.
The air force was also flying an observation aircraft to provide feedback to the authorities.
The tanker was carrying 270,000 tonnes of crude oil from the port of Mina Al Ahmadi in Kuwait to the Indian port of Paradip, where the state-owned Indian Oil Corp has a refinery.
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