An explosion onboard the containership ‘Ocean Trader’ in Jebel Ali port rocked the city of Dubai this week, which was felt up to 25 km from the terminal.

The explosion was followed by an onboard fire which has been brought under control within an hour, fortunately no casualties were reported.

The vessel was badly damaged by the explosion and containers were hurled on the quayside as a direct result from the blast onboard the ship.  The explosion has once again been attributed to dangerous cargo.

The shipping industry has been plagued by many deadly fires and explosions from mis-declared dangerous cargoes. The most recent significant incident being the vessel X-Press Pearl, which sank off the coast of Sri Lanka, two weeks after a fire started from a container leaking nitric acid.