A fishing trawler caught fire early on Thursday while engaged in fishing in the Bay of Bengal near the Kuakata coast of Patuakhali.
All 13 fishermen aboard the trawler, named FB Marzia, were rescued by another fishing vessel and reached Kuakata shore in the afternoon.
Mustafa Khalifa, the trawler owner hailing from Alipur, claimed that he had incurred a loss of Tk15 lakh. "It was the biggest fishing vessel in the Alipur area."
The rescued fishermen after returning to Mohipur fishing port said their trawler ventured deep into the sea from Alipur Ghat on December 28. On Wednesday midnight, a battery wiring of the trawler engine caught fire and within moments it spread to the oil tank, they added.
On failing to extinguish the fire, they jumped into the sea and stayed afloat for one and a half hours.
Zainul Farazi, one of the crew members, said the vessel had been fully burnt and sunk in the sea by Thursday morning.
Later, seeing the burning flames, a ship came from a distance and rescued the floating fishermen. They boarded on FB Elma-2, another fishing trawler owned by Abu Husain Kari, a fish merchant of Alipur.
