2 killed in oil products tanker fire off Incheon

A fire broke out aboard a tanker carrying oil products off the coast of Incheon, South Korea, on Thursday evening, resulting in the deaths of two crew members. The incident occurred approximately ten hours and thirty-eight minutes after the vessel set sail, according to the Coast Guard. Among the 18 crew members on board, a man in his sixties and another in his twenties were pronounced dead upon arrival at a nearby port.

The remaining 16 crew members were successfully rescued and are currently reported to be in stable condition. The fire was extinguished early Friday morning, around 4 a.m.

The cause of the blaze is believed to have originated in the engine room of the vessel, but it did not extend to the oil storage compartment. The Coast Guard intends to conduct a thorough investigation into the exact circumstances leading to the fire and assess the extent of the damage. A total of 11 of the crew members were Korean nationals, while the remaining seven hailed from foreign countries.