A container ship at the Port of Los Angeles caught fire Friday evening, prompting a major firefighting operation involving nearly 200 firefighters. The blaze was contained in the early hours of Saturday morning before the vessel was moved to an anchorage roughly one mile from the shore.
No injuries were reported, with all 23 crew members reported safe.
The fire broke out on the Ocean Network Express (ONE) Henry Hudson at 6:38 p.m. on Friday when it was docked at the port’s Berth 218 at Yusen Container Terminal.
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The incident temporarily disrupted port operations Friday night, with four of the gateway’s seven container terminals suspending operations and California State Route 47 briefly closing due to smoke and visibility concerns.
At approximately 8 p.m. Friday, multiple agencies arrived on scene after receiving reports of smoke and fire below deck on the vessel. Alongside the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), support came from the Long Beach Fire Department, the United States Coast Guard, Los Angeles Port Police and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
Around that time, a mid-ship explosion caused onboard lights and cranes to lose power.
While the ship maintained a stable height in the water with no indication of tilting, hazardous materials were identified in several affected bays, prompting LAFD Hazmat teams to conduct continuous air monitoring.
Authorities have not identified the cause of the explosion.
All 23 crew members were safely assisted off the ship with the help of the port police and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“The LAFD personnel were the first to arrive on scene and immediately coordinated a response with local partners from other agencies,” said incident commander, LAFD assistant chief Carlos Calvillo. “Fire burned on multiple sub-levels below deck in areas that were largely inaccessible, which required a high level of communication and coordination from everyone to ensure the safety of on scene personnel and the crew members aboard the vessel.”
The Unified Command response team established among the LAFD, the Coast Guard and other agencies issued a shelter-in-place order for residents of the San Pedro and Wilmington neighborhoods in Los Angeles at approximately 12 a.m. Saturday. The move was precautionary, as air quality readings were within normal ranges, the team said.
The shelter-in-place order was lifted at approximately 6:30 a.m. on Saturday.
That morning, the four L.A. port terminals that were closed resumed operations, while Route 47 reopened.
The Panama-flagged ONE Henry Hudson docked at the port on Wednesday after making previous stops in the Port of Singapore, as well as three Japanese ports in Kobe, Nagoya and Tokyo. The vessel had initially been set to stop at the Port of Oakland on Tuesday, before the fire forced responders to move it to anchorage.
Anchorage of the Henry Hudson was successfully completed at 4:43 a.m. Saturday near Angel’s Gate Lighthouse.
“We worked closely with our local partners to keep crews safe, move the vessel offshore, and prevent any disruption to the Port of Los Angeles,” said Capt. Jarrod DeWitz, Coast Guard incident commander. “We will continue to collaborate until the vessel is fully stable and no longer poses a risk to the port or the community.”
The Henry Hudson has the capacity to carry approximately 8,200 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
It is part of the Premier Alliance’s FP1 (Far East-Pacific 1) service, which travels between Asia and Northern Europe and debuted in February. That vessel-sharing alliance consists of ONE, Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) and Yang Ming.
As of Saturday, Flexport had 38 containers on the ONE Henry Hudson, with 26 of them already discharged and 12 still on board. Container tracking platform Terminal49 said 20 of its customers were affected, with 101 containers still on the vessel. Another 120 boxes had been discharged.
This is the second major incident involving a container ship at the San Pedro Bay port complex in recent months.
In September, dozens of containers fell off a ZIM container ship at the Port of Long Beach, which briefly suspended cargo operations at the gateway’s Pier G terminal.
During that incident, the 5,550-TEU MV Mississippi vessel attempted to dock before the cargo began to fall into the water.
