Thread: Explosions at Mobile, Alabama shipyard

Yikes: At least three big explosions reported at Mobile, Alabama shipyard tonight. BREAKING news & updates ==>

Multiple explosions and a fire on a fuel barge are being reported at the Austal shipyard in Mobile, Ala., tonight.

http://twitchy.com/2013/04/24/huge-e...-ala-shipyard/


Fox10 News reports that the Coast Guard is on the scene. No deaths have been reported, although some crew members of the natural gas barge sustained injuries. http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/loca...n-mobile-river

Mobile Fire-Rescue @MobileFRD

Units on scene on east side of Mobile River where a fuel barge has exploded and is on fire.

8:47 PM - 24 Apr 2013

Mobile Fire-Rescue @MobileFRD

UPDATE: two barges with natural gas exploded. Three injured and transported to hospital They were reportedly empty.

9:16 PM - 24 Apr 2013

James Spann @spann

Smoke plume from Mobile barge explosions from the ABC 33/40 SKYCAM network pic.twitter.com/bNcnn3NeIx

9:17 PM - 24 Apr 2013

Bob Grip @Bob_Grip

News crews told to evacuate the area along the Mobile River

9:32 PM - 24 Apr 2013

Raymond Pritchett @Galrahn

They are setting up a one mile hot zone around the burning barges. Wow.

9:38 PM - 24 Apr 2013

comments

Boston, Texas now Alabama. Hmmmm.

...

Los Ageles Monday April 28th http://beforeitsnews.com/strange/201...o-2448402.html

...

Attempted terrorist attacks in Canada on their railways and TN Nuke plant ...

Fuel Barges Explode On Mobile River, Injuring 3 (VIDEO)
Posted: 04/24/2013 10:26 pm EDT | Updated: 04/25/2013 4:18 am EDT



Three people were seriously injured when two barges previously loaded with liquid natural gas exploded on the east side of the Mobile River in Alabama on Wednesday evening.

The first barge blew up around 8:30 p.m. CDT. According to AL.com, the blast rattled windows in downtown Mobile and blew open doors in Spanish Fort.

Since then, six additional explosions have been heard.

Alan Waugh, general manager of the Ft. Conde Inn, told WALA-TV that he saw and heard the explosions.

"We were up on a second floor balcony and the sky lit up in orange and yellow, Waugh said. "My partner was on one end of the balcony and I was on the other. And you thought it was the Carnival cruise ship first, but then you realized it was a little further from the ship. It sounded like planes above you dropping bombs when it first went off."

Three workers with Oil Recovery Co. were taken to USA Medical Center with burns. A hospital spokesperson said all three patients are currently in critical condition.

Firefighters from Mobile, Ala., and U.S. Coast Guard crews were dispatched to the scene, The Associated Press reported.

The fire department's Twitter feed reported that the situation was too unstable to engage, and firefighters decided to let the blaze burn overnight.

At this time, the cause of the explosions is unknown.

...

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS:

MOBILE, Ala. — A large fire that began with explosions aboard two fuel barges in Mobile, Ala., was rocked by a seventh explosion early Thursday and fire officials said they planned to let the fire, which has injured three, burn overnight.
Firefighters from Mobile and U.S. Coast Guard officials responded after 8:30 p.m. CDT Wednesday to a pair of explosions involving the gas barges in an area of the Mobile River east of downtown, authorities said.

As they were responding, a third explosion occurred around 9:30 p.m., Mobile Fire and Rescue spokesman Steve Huffman wrote in an email to The Associated Press. Additional explosions followed over the next few hours.

The Coast Guard said early Thursday that a one-nautical-mile safety zone had been established around one barge, which it said was "at the dock for cleaning."

Authorities said three people were transported to University of South Alabama Medical Center after suffering burn-related injuries. Huffman identified them as workers with Oil Recovery Co. The three were in critical condition early Thursday, according to hospital nursing administrator Danny Whatley.

Across the river, the Carnival Triumph, the cruise ship that became disabled in the Gulf of Mexico last February before it was towed to Mobile's port, was evacuated, said Alan Waugh, who lives at the Fort Conde Inn in downtown Mobile, across the river from the scene of the explosions. Waugh saw the blasts and said throngs of Carnival employees and others were clustered on streets leading toward the river as authorities evacuated the shipyard.

"It literally sounded like bombs going off around. The sky just lit up in orange and red," he said, "We could smell something in the air, we didn't know if it was gas or smoke." Waugh said he could feel the heat from the explosion and when he came back inside, his partner noticed he had what appeared to be black soot on his face.

U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Carlos Vega said the initial blast took place in a ship channel near the George C. Wallace Tunnel – which carries traffic from Interstate 10 under the Mobile River. The river runs south past Mobile and into Mobile Bay, which in turn flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear, Huffman and Vega said.

"Once (the fire) is out and safe, a full investigation will take place," Huffman wrote.

Mobile Fire Chief Steve Dean told AL.com he was confident the fire wouldn't spread to nearby industrial properties, including the shipyard where the Carnival cruise ship is docked.

Huffman said the ship is directly across the river from the incident – about two football fields in length.

The barges are owned by Houston-based Kirby Inland Marine, company spokesman Greg Beuerman said. He said the barges were empty and being cleaned at the Oil Recovery Co. facility when the incident began. He said the barges had been carrying a liquid called natural gasoline – which he said is neither liquefied natural gas or natural gas. He said the company has dispatched a team to work with investigators to determine what caused the fire.

The explosion comes two months after the 900-foot-long Carnival Triumph was towed to Mobile after becoming disabled on the Gulf during a cruise by an engine room fire, leaving thousands of passengers to endure cold food, unsanitary conditions and power outages for several days. The ship is still undergoing repairs there, with many workers living on board.

Carnival didn't immediately respond to an emailed request for comment late Wednesday.

Earlier this month, the cruise ship was dislodged from its mooring by a windstorm that also caused, in a separate incident, two shipyard workers to fall into Mobile Bay. While one worker was rescued, the other's body was pulled from the water more than a week later.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...comm_ref=false

comments

Sounds like some one or some group is blowing these barges up. Maybe if it was just one it could be an accident but not three. This smells like terrorism because these kind of explosions are just too frequent lately like in Texas I think I think it could be a radical environmental group but this is no accident...

..

Does anybody remember so many bad things bombings and explosions happening this frequently? Everyday there seems to be some new sensational headline and now there are so many TV channels and other media outlets that try to out do each other we never do get the real story.

..


I'm a Fire Lieutenant in Massachusetts. Watching the video was very interesting! If you stop the video at 2:36 when an explosion occurs you will see what appears to be a silhouette of a person. Looks like a sailor with a hat or police officer, subject to your interpretation. Why it's interesting is on December 3, 1999 there was a fire at the Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse. Six heroic firefighters lost their lives searching for two civilians. Also in the pictures was a silhouette of a fire fighter in the flames. Please check the picture out at the following link. http://my.firefighternation.com/foru...rcester-cold-2