Flames of fury: Fire still burning at KPT oil terminal

Two people were killed and eight injured in the incident on Saturday

KARACHI: For the second consecutive day, flames from the storage tank containing a thousand litres of volatile methanol at the Karachi Port continued to burn as fire-fighters were unable to put out the blaze despite hours-long struggle.

Two people, surveyor Arif and Tahir, were killed as the fire, preceded by a blast, erupted at a methanol storage tank located near the port's Gate No 1 in Keamari on Saturday at around 11:30am, said Jackson police station SHO Rao Khalid.

Arif's body has been recovered but Tahir has still not been found, said the police officer, adding that both of them were atop the tank when the incident occurred. Some eight people were also injured in the fire and two are reportedly missing.

Gauging the vulnerability of the situation, Karachi Port Trust (KPT) fire-fighters immediately rushed to the spot and more were called in from the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Pakistan Navy and others to douse the flames, said KPT fire chief Saeed Jadoon.

He said that the supply from the vessel to the storage tank was immediately stopped to prevent the situation from further worsening. "The other tanks in close proximity were defueled so that they would not catch fire if [the situation] goes out of control," he said.

According to Jadoon, the fire will continue to burn until the fuel in the container is depleted then the cooling process will start. "There was around 1,000 litres of chemical in the tank and around 75% of it has been burnt," he explained.

He believed that the fire might have erupted due to negligence on part of the workers during the fuel transfer.

The storage facility was operated by a private company named Phi.

This is the second time in one week that fire has erupted at the Keamari oil terminal. Earlier, on November 23, a similar incident occurred near Gate No 2 in two storage tanks that were reportedly operated by Shell Oil Marketing Company. Two people were wounded in the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2016.