SAN PEDRO (CNS) – The electrical fire onboard the container ship One Henry Hudson in the Port of Los Angeles has been substantially contained while efforts continue Sunday to fully extinguish the blaze, which began more than 30 hours ago, Port of Los Angeles officials said.
The Port is open for business after community shelter-in-place orders and work restrictions were lifted Saturday and all lanes of the nearby Seaside (47) Freeway between Gaffney Street and Ocean Boulevard in San Pedro have reopened.
A Unified Command including crews from the Los Angeles and Long Beach fire departments, the U.S. Coast Guard, Los Angeles Port Police and Los Angeles Police Department remain at the scene along with select Henry Hudson crew members.
No injuries have been reported.
The fire was reported at 6:38 p.m. Friday at 701 East New Dock Street in San Pedro drawing a sizeable emergency response from Heavy Rescue, HazMat, Urban Search and Rescue, Fire Boats and Air Operations units, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Lyndsey Lantz.
Fire was visible on several levels of the 1,100-foot vessel as LAFD crews worked to confirm all 23 crew members were accounted for and safely off the ship while identifying the fire’s source and working to contain it.
Port Police and Customs personnel helped with getting crew members off the ship, Lantz said.
At 7:58 p.m., an explosion was reported mid-deck, disrupting power to the ship, including lighting and crane operations. By 8:27 p.m., the final five crew members were assisted off the vessel, and all crew were accounted for, according to Lantz.
Due to the fire, the California Highway Patrol issued a SigAlert closing all lanes of the Seaside (47) Freeway between Gaffney Street and Ocean Boulevard in San Pedro.
The presence of hazardous materials in some of the containers presented an added danger for firefighters and the public. The ship was towed out to anchorage outside of the breakwater, where firefighters continued battling the blaze.
LAFD HazMat teams monitored air quality as suppression efforts continued in the ship’s sub-levels, where access remained difficult. A shelter- in-place order was issued north of Point Fermin, between South Western Avenue and State Route 103 for both San Pedro and nearby Wilmington, the LAFD reported.
“If you can smell it, you’re going to want to stay indoors,” LAFD Captain Adam Van Gerpen said.
The order was lifted Saturday morning.
“We had a very large response to this,” Van Gerpen told KTLA5. “Our firefighters worked throughout the night. They were here until approximately 4 a.m. when they finally moved the ship out into open water.”
Van Gerpen said fire crews had reports that at least 40 containers caught fire and that number might have risen to 100 after the blast. Six crew members who had been evacuated from the ship returned to assist firefighters navigating the lower compartments, he added.
“This is very rare that a ship catches on fire and we have to remove it out of the port, but we wanted to have it safe for the residents of Wilmington and San Pedro,” Van Gerpen said.
Four of the port’s seven container terminals suspended operations after the fire, but they had reopened by Saturday morning, the captain added.
According to media reports, the ship recently arrived from Tokyo.
The cause of the fire was unclear.
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