A major emergency was declared at the Port of Los Angeles on Friday night as 186 firefighters worked to extinguish a massive, stubborn fire involving hazardous materials on a cargo ship, authorities said.
An electrical fire broke out below decks on the 1,100-foot container ship 1 Henry Hudson at 6:38 p.m., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Authorities said an explosion occurred on the ship shortly before 8 p.m., affecting lights and power to the crane.
Several containers that caught fire contained hazardous materials, and all firefighters were wearing protective suits and oxygen masks, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Specially trained hazardous materials crews are monitoring air quality while efforts continue to extinguish fires on all levels of the ship.
Maritime crews are working to cool the outside of the ship to make conditions on the ship more suitable for fire crews. As of 8pm, incident command had directed fire crews not to go below deck.
At that time, containment progress was still slow, according to the LAFD. Despite the large amounts of water used to extinguish the fire, the ship did not appear to sink.
Drones were used to obtain thermal imaging of the fire and assist with emergency response, authorities said.
Earlier that night, authorities said six crew members on the ship were unaccounted for. At 8:30 p.m., LAFD confirmed that all 23 crew members had been located and safely disembarked. There were no reports of injuries.
The U.S. Coast Guard also responded to the incident and established a one-mile safety perimeter around the vessel.
The Panamanian-flagged cargo ship departed from Tokyo and arrived at the Port of Los Angeles on Wednesday, according to Vessel Finder.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement to X that the city is continuing to monitor the incident closely. Officials said Gov. Gavin Newsom was briefed on the incident and his office is coordinating with local authorities to support the emergency response.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
