One crew member dead as oil tanker catches fire off Guj coast

A crew member died and another sustained serious injuries after a diesel-laden oil tanker caught fire off the Gujarat coast yesterday, police said.
Fire-fighting operations on the oil tanker M T Genessa were still underway, a defence official said, adding that water samples from the area showed that so far there was no oil leak from the ship.
Merlin Fernando (35), an electrical engineer aboard M T Genessa, died during the treatment at a government hospital at Gandhidham, while another crew member, Nitin Madhukar, was shifted to Mumbai in a critical condition, a marine police station official said.
There were in total 26 crew members aboard the tanker which caught fire while being anchored off Deendayal Port of Kandla at 6 pm yesterday.

The tanker was carrying 30,000 tonnes of high-speed diesel.
All the crew members were evacuated, and of them, two were admitted to a hospital in critical condition, the official said.

Fernando died last night while Madhukar was today shifted to a Mumbai hospital.
Defence spokesperson Abhishek Matiman said efforts to control the fire were underway. While flames were put out, smoke was still emanating from the ship, he said.
No oil spillage has been reported, he added.
"Fire-fight continues as smoke is still emanating from the tanker even when flames have been doused. Of the 26 crew members, the rescue team evacuated all. Two crew members had burn injuries, one of whom later died," Matiman said.

Apart from the three Indian Coast Guard boats and nine tugs from the Kandla Port Trust which were pressed into rescue operations, the Port Trust Fire Department and the Marine police were also roped in.
ICG chopper Chetak was used to "assess damage and to guide rescue vessels to maximise effectiveness," Matiman said.