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Three killed in tanker explosion in East Java
Lamongan Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Bobby A. Condroputra said the tanker suffered four separate explosions during the incident, with the fire quickly spreading to the tugboat.
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Fire fighters onboard a vessel try to extinguish a fire on a tanker ship docked in Belawan, North Sumatra on May 11, 2020. (AFP/Albert Ivan Damanik)
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t least three people were killed and one other is missing after the tanker MT Ronggolawe exploded on Thursday in the Java Sea north of Lamongan regency, East Java.
The explosion occurred around 6:00 a.m. as the tanker, laden with fuel and coal, was being towed by the Roselyne 08 tugboat toward a dock at Lamongan Shorebase Port.
Lamongan Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Bobby A. Condroputra said the tanker suffered four separate explosions during the incident, with the fire quickly spreading to the tugboat.
"The explosion is believed to have been caused by a short circuit in MT Ronggolawe's engine," he said on Thursday, as quoted by Kompas.
Officers from the East Java Police's Water and Air Directorate (Ditpolairud) and the Lamongan Police, as well as officials from Lamongan Shorebase Port, were deployed to extinguish the fire.
Once the fire was put out, MT Ronggolawe, which sustained severe damage to its front and middle sections, was towed to a beach near a the PT Lamongan Marine Industry shipyard.
Authorities said there were 11 crew members aboard MT Ronggolawe when the incident occurred. Three were killed in the explosion, two sustained severe burns and the remaining six suffered minor injuries.
