Oil tanker goes up in flames off the Sri Lankan coast

A new fire broke out on the fully loaded oil tanker off the Sri Lankan coast due to extreme temperatures and high winds, the Sri Lankan Navy said on Monday, days after the tanker first caught fire. The Sri Lankan Navy had just released an earlier report that the fire on board the MT New Diamond oil tanker had been completely extinguished. Last Thursday, the Sri Lankan Navy said one person was injured and another person was missing after an oil tanker carrying crude oil from Kuwait to India caught fire east of Sri Lanka. The tanker MT New Diamond, which had 270,000 tons (almost 1.9 million barrels) of crude oil on board, was on its way from the port of Mina Al Ahmadi in Kuwait to the Indian port of Paradip when a boiler explosion and a fire broke out in the main engine room. The Sri Lankan Navy responded immediately to the tanker's distress signal and asked for help while a nearby ship rescued 19 of the 23 crew members, the Navy said. A crew member, a Filipino national, goes missing while an engineer sustained injuries and was rushed to hospital for treatment. The MT New Diamond was chartered by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), India's largest refiner and fuel dealer, and was fully loaded according to refinitive data reported by Reuters. The Indian Coast Guard also came on the scene and the Indian ship Shaurya has started to put out the fire. Other Indian Coast Guard and Navy ships are also approaching the area. In a rapid operation coordinated by Sea & Air, the Indian Coast Guard immediately diverted its Shaurya, Sarang, Samudra Paheredar and Dornier Aircraft to help fight the oil tanker, the Indian Coast Guard said on Twitter. The Sri Lankan Navy and authorities "are taking steps to mitigate and manage the risk of possible future oil spills from this disaster," the Navy said.