LOS ANGELES — A massive fire, followed by an explosion, erupted aboard a large container ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles on Friday night, prompting a major emergency response from over 100 firefighters.
The blaze broke out on the 1,102-foot-long (336-meter-long) vessel, the One Henry Hudson, operated by Singapore-based One Ocean Express. The Los Angeles Fire Department reported the fire appears to have started as an electrical fire below deck and spread to several levels of the ship.
All 23 crew members were safely evacuated and accounted for, with no injuries reported. The ship’s cargo is known to include hazardous materials, prompting LAFD Hazardous Materials teams to actively monitor air quality in the area as firefighting efforts continued.
“The Port of Los Angeles is the busiest in North America,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who confirmed the scale of the firefighting operation. The cause of the mid-deck explosion was not immediately clear.
The vessel had recently been in Japan, with stops in Kobe, Nagoya, and Tokyo before arriving in Los Angeles. The shipping company, One Ocean Express, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
By James Kisoo
