Explosion Reported Near Site of Baltimore Bridge Collapse – Bundlezy

Explosion Reported Near Site of Baltimore Bridge Collapse

An explosion on a cargo ship carrying coal was heard throughout Baltimore’s harbor on Monday night, prompting a distress call. 

The explosion was close to the site of last year’s collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, and caused the city’s main shipping channel to be closed on Tuesday morning.

Following the collapse of the Key Bridge, this is the second major incident to take place involving ships and containers in the Patapsco River.

The explosion took place on a 751-foot merchant vessel that was headed to East Africa. The boat was set to arrive in Port of Mauritius after around a month, sailing under the Liberian flag.

23 crew members were aboard the ship at the time of the explosion, along with two pilots. No injuries have been reported after the explosion, and Maryland’s Department of Emergency Management noted that 

“The U.S. Coast Guard is the lead agency in the response and will determine when the channel can safely reopen, as well as the timing of vessel arrivals and departures,” said port officials on Tuesday.

The Coast Guard has currently set up a 2,000-yard perimeter around the explosion site, and noted that the fire generated from the explosion has been dealt with and extinguished.

Officials did not provide a timeline for the reopening of the federal shipping channel.

The 2024 Key bridge collapse closed the channel for a number of months. Six people, all members of a roadwork crew, died during that incident. 

The container ship Dali lost power and crashed into one of the bridge’s support beams, destroying it and sending those workers into the cold water below.

The shipping channel reopened in June after the March accident, as crews worked hard to remove an estimated 50,000 tons of steel and concrete from the river. 

The Port of Baltimore is extremely important to the overall economy, as more cars and farm equipment come through it than any other port in the country.

The Dali itself took two months to clear from the wreckage, and was guided back to port nearly 60 days after crashing into the bridge. Officials say that roughly 500 specialists from around the world helped with the relief and restoration effort, opening the channel up for the two-way traffic it allowed before the initial crash.

About admin