On Sunday, a major fire broke out aboard two LPG carriers during an allegedly illegal ship-to-ship transfer off Bangladesh.

The LPG carrier Captain Nikolas was moored off Kutubdia, Chattogram over the weekend to offload its cargo to a lighterage vessel, the B-LPG Sophia. At about 0045 hours Sunday morning, a fire broke out aboard both vessels during cargo transfer operations. The Bangladesh Coast Guard and Bangladeshi Navy responded to the scene with a total of seven vessels, and they brought the fire aboard both vessels under control.

31 crewmembers jumped over the side from both vessels to escape the flames, and all were pulled from the water. No significant injuries were reported.

According to New Age Bangladesh, the Captain Nikolas escaped the fire relatively unscathed, but the Sophia sustained significant damage.

The LPG Operators Association of Bangladesh (LOAB) claims that the origin of the cargo aboard Captain Nikolas was misdeclared, and that it actually came from Iran, a sanctioned supplier. Captain Nikolas' AIS record shows a weeklong gap in mid-September, just before she departed the Persian Gulf, according to data provided by Pole Star.

CPA Secretary Mohd Omar Faruk told The Business Standard that the vessel was searched and no evidence of an illicit cargo was found. The papers aboard showed that the Captain Nikolas took on the LPG in Dubai or Oman, Faruk said.

The Chittagong Port Authority has set up a committee to determine the cause of the fire, with a rapid one-week timetable for completing the investigation, according to New Age.

Captain Nikolas is a 50,000 dwt LPG carrier built in 1992 and flagged in the Cook Islands. It was detained in Hunen, China in January for two issues with fire protection in the cargo deck area, among other fire safety issues - and was cited for the same problem again when it returned to Hunen in March.

The incidents aboard Captain Nikolas and B-LPG Sophia were the third and fourth major vessel fires off Bangladesh within two weeks. A blaze broke out aboard the tanker Banglar Shourabh on October 4, killing one crewmember, and a fire aboard the tanker Banglar Jyoti (video below) killed three on September 30.