A fire on board a tanker of the Malaysia International Shipping Corporation (MISC) in Labuan early today has left one crew dead and four missing.

An explosion during the fire, which occurred on board the vessel, Bunga Alpinia , at 2.30am, rocked Labuan.

MISC said in a statement that one of the crew of the tanker was reported killed and four were missing. It also said that the identity of the deceased had yet to be confirmed.

“Currently, efforts are being made to put out the fire on board the vessel,” it said.

MISC said the vessel was loading methanol at the Petronas Chemicals Methanol Sdn Bhd terminal in Labuan at the time of the incident.

Labuan has gained recognition as an oil and gas hub, and it is home to many international oil and gas companies.

MISC said in a statement that the 38,000 DWT IMO II vessel had 29 crew, comprising 23 Malaysians and six Filipinos. It said 24 of the crew had been brought to shore.

The fire also caused an explosion aboard the vessel which was at the jetty of the Petronas Chemicals Methanol Sdn Bhd terminal near Pulau Enoe in the Rancha-Rancha Industrial Zone.  

According to a source at the emergency unit of Labuan Hospital, the dead man was Malaysian Syahril Azmi Baharudin, who had succumbed to burns. 

The preliminary list of people brought to the hospital bore the names of Malaysians Zahari Hashim, Mohd Hanafi Khairil, Mohd Nazim Kamsani and of Filipinos Colangoy and Krrol Salalv An.

Federal Territory of Labuan Fire and Rescue Department director Zainal Madasin said 64 firemen were continuing to fight the blaze on the tanker, which was seen to be listing.

Meanwhile, in a statement, Petronas Chemicals Group Berhad said that it was undertaking all necessary action to ensure the safety of all personnel at its subsidiary, Petronas Chemicals Methanol Sdn Bhd, where the fire incident took place. 

A nearby building owned by Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) suffered damage to the ceiling, windows and doors due to the resulting strong vibrations.

Following the incident, the operations of the Patau-Patau Power Station owned by SESB located adjacent to the terminal were temporarily halted for safety reasons.

SESB managing director Abdul Razak Sallim said this was to enable the fire and rescue personnel to take the necessary preventive and safety measures.

Channelling of gas stopped

The channelling of gas from Petronas Chemicals Methanol to the Patau-Patau power station was stopped immediately until after the situation returned to normal and it was safe, he said in a statement.

Abdul Razak said the temporary shutdown was expected to affect SESB’s capability to channel electricity to all consumers in duty-free Labuan.

He also said that several emergency measures to meet the shortfall in electricity generation capacity would be implemented, including Demand Side Management (DSM), during the period of peak demand.

Rationing of electricity supply would only be implemented in stages if the implementation of the DSM was unable to cope with the demand and the station could not operate at optimum capacity, he said.

The Patau-Patau Power Station has the capacity to generate 103.5MW of electricity, and is the only power station in the Federal Territory of Labuan.

In KUALA LUMPUR, an officer at the headquarters of the Malaysian Meteorological Services Department, Khairul Najib Ibrahim, when contacted, said Labuan reportedly experienced a thunderstorm between 2am and 5am today.

However, it could not be ascertained whether the weather played a part in the fire outbreak.

- Bernama