Seatrade Maritime: Firefighting continues on ONE container ship in Port of LA

Salvors continue to try and extinguish a fire that erupted on the ONE Henry Hudson while it was at berth in the Port of Los Angeles in the evening of 21 November.

Although the fire was reported to have been brought “substantially under control” on Saturday when the vessel was towed to a location outside the port’s breakwater fires continue to smoulder in containers in the hold of the ONE Henry Hudson.

Firefighting operations have shifted to salvage teams with the Los Angeles Fire Department moving into supporting role. During the initial response on Friday nearly 200 personnel were deployed to battle the blaze.

“Vessel crew and a contracted salvage team are monitoring for hot spots in containers. A fire lance is being used to extinguish and cool any affected containers,” said a statement released by Unified Command.

“Contracted tugs are continuously spraying water to conduct boundary cooling and preserve the integrity of the hull. Water remains the extinguishing agent.”

Firefighting efforts are focused on hold no.3 on the vessel which is reported to now be 80% full of water, however, there are no concerns over the stability of the vessel.

A half-mile safety zone is being maintained around the container ship by the US Coast Guard and Los Angeles Port Police, and a salvage plan is under development.

“Safety is our top priority in addressing this incident,” said Capt. Stacey Crecy, US Coast Guard incident commander. “We are closely monitoring air quality, maintaining safety zones, and coordinating with all agencies to ensure this incident remains isolated and the public remains protected.”

No-one was reported to have been injured in the incident which is the latest in a series of serious fires onboard container ships, which can take weeks if not months to fully extinguish.

The Panama-flagged ONE Henry Hudson is operated by Ocean Network Express (ONE).