Container ship fire in L.A. ‘substantially contained,’ officials say

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By Rich McKay

(Reuters) -A fire on a cargo ship that sent smoke billowing through parts of the second most populous U.S. city has been “substantially contained” after several hours, the Port of Los Angeles said on Saturday.

Shelter-in-place orders for two of the city’s neighborhoods were lifted. No injuries have been reported. 

The blaze began with an electrical fire at about 6:30 p.m. local time Friday on the ship One Henry Hudson at a dock in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles.

Fire crews and ship crew members continued fire suppression efforts on Saturday, officials said, after the vessel was towed away from its berth at the Yusen Container Terminal. Marine units continued cooling the ship’s exterior, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. TV footage from an ABC affiliate showed firefighting boats shooting streams of water on the ship’s sides and over containers on fire on the deck. 

On Friday, the fire and subsequent explosion on the ship spurred concerns that hazardous materials were burning.

All 23 crew members were quickly evacuated from the vessel, as the fire disrupted power and crane operations.

Officials issued shelter-in-place orders for the Los Angeles communities of San Pedro and Wilmington. Those orders were lifted on Saturday, and officials also removed work restrictions that had been in place for the port’s terminals. Earlier, fire officials said four of the port’s seven container terminals had resumed operations.

The One Henry Hudson sails under a Panama flag and arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday from Tokyo’s Shinagawa port, according to LSEG data.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; additional reporting by Rajveer Singh Pardesi and Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard, Tom Hogue, Sergio Non and David Gregorio)