Five dead after blast inside ONGC tanker in Cochin shipyard

KOCHI: Five people were killed and 7 injured, today, in a fire incident onboard an oil rig of ONGC, undergoing repairs at Cochin Shipyard.

The explosion followed a gas leakage near the AC compartment area of the ship. By this time explosion had occurred in the forward area of ship, near to the AC plant.

“Firemen on board the ship immediately started firefighting and the fire tender joined with them for the fire fighting from the Aft area. Two firemen with BA sets immediately rushed into the smoke filled area and started fire fighting and rescue operations. Others continued firefighting from the forward hatch and reached to the incident spot,” said the shipyard operator in a statement.


The ship Sagar Bhushan arrived at Cochin Shipyard on Dec 7, 2017 for drydock repairs. It was drydocked on January 12 2018 and it was to be undocked Feb 28. The work completion was scheduled by April 7.

An ex gratia of Rs 10 lakhs for the kith and kin of the deceased has been promised by the company. All treatment expenses of the injured will be met by the company as per the existing policies, said the statement.