By the afternoon of 14th April, all the laxity ended in a tragedy. Around 12.30 pm, as preparations began to offload the explosives, officers from neighboring ships saw smoke rising from one of the holds of S.S. Fort Stikine. Thinking that the ship’s crew was dealing with it, no one raised an alarm. The crew itself was oblivious to the smoke. It was only around 1.45 pm, almost an hour later, that the S.S Fort Stikine’s crew realized there was a fire on board. The firefighting equipment on board was deployed and the fire services at the Bombay harbor were notified.

At first, the ship’s crew could not detect from where the smoke was coming and so began blindly pumping water into the hold. There was no one in command. Records claim that the ship’s crew - the port officials, the firemen and the British army representatives (in charge of the ammunition) were just arguing. The situation went from bad to worse and seeing that the ammunition had begun to catch fire, final orders were sent to abandon the ship.

However, around 4.06 pm, just as the crew was preparing to abandon the ship, a massive explosion tore through the ship. This was followed by a second explosion sometime later. When the few survivors opened their eyes, they could not believe what they were seeing. It was like a scene from Armageddon.