Real Life Incident: Chemical Tanker Becomes A Total Loss As 12 Crew Abandon Ship Before Explosion

A chemical tanker was on passage in ballast, having discharged its cargo of ethanol. At about 1725, the officer on watch in the engine control room noticed smoke coming from behind a fluorescent light fitting. As a precaution, the generator and main engine were stopped while the crew searched the engine room for the source – but no fire was found. Shortly afterward, smoke was seen coming from the port side of the accommodation. It was found to be emanating from the laundry room; smoke was escaping from around the door, and the door itself was hot to the touch. The fire spread very rapidly through the accommodation. Crew attempted to fight the fire in fire fighting kit, but could not get close to the seat of the fire due to dense smoke. To complicate matters, because the generator had been shut down, the fire pump could not be run. The emergency fire pump, located in the steering gear…