Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 11, 1990 TAG: 9006110248
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GALVESTON, TEXAS LENGTH: Medium
Coast Guard officials said firefighters today would use foam to try to smother the blaze aboard the 853-foot Mega Borg, crippled 57 miles southeast of Galveston. Some 30,000 gallons of foam was brought in during the night.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Mark Sedwick said the Coast Guard was satisfied with efforts so far to contain the spill and fire, and "confident that we can put this fire out today."
The Norwegian ship was hit by an explosion and fire Saturday while some of Cruise ship leaking fuel off Cape Cod. A2 its cargo was being transferred to a smaller tanker. Two of the 41 crewmen died, two were missing and presumed dead and 17 were injured, none seriously.
Little if any of the African light crude spilled initially or during small explosions later Saturday and early Sunday. But on Sunday afternoon, five powerful blasts within 20 minutes ripped through the ship, sending flaming crude into the air and water.
The blaze collapsed the ship's superstructure, which remained engulfed in flames. Columns of thick smoke could be seen nearly 40 miles away.
The rear of the tanker dropped 58 feet since the first explosion Saturday, indicating either the cargo had shifted or the ship was taking on water, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Frank Whipple said late Sunday. The rear deck was 5 feet above the water early today, authorities said.
"It's very possible with a good firefighting effort that a large-scale oil spill can be prevented and something as horrible as the tanker sinking can be prevented, but we don't know how much damage it's already received," Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Todd Nelson said. "We want to be prepared for a large oil spill if it should occur."
The Mega Borg carried more than three times as much oil as was spilled by the Exxon Valdez off Alaska in March 1989 in the nation's worst oil spill.
But authorities noted that the oil spilled in Alaska was heavy crude, which doesn't dissipate nearly as rapidly as the light crude aboard the Mega Borg, and that much of the oil spilling off Texas was being consumed by fire.
Thousands of feet of oil-spill containment booms were brought in. Four Coast Guard cutters were in place around the tanker while two salvage-team ships sprayed water on its deck in an attempt to keep the ship cool.
Foam couldn't be used earlier because the nearest available equipment to spray it was in Louisiana, said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Sam Wilson.
A slick about one mile long north of the Mega Borg and one about 20 miles long to the south were visible late Sunday. The spills were estimated to contain 10,000 to 100,000 gallons. A plane dropped oil dispersant late Sunday.
Currents and winds were expected to push the oil toward a 150-to 200-mile stretch of coast between Freeport and Corpus Christi. But Coast Guard Capt. Thomas Greene said the currents were expected to keep the spill from coming ashore.
On Sunday, members of a salvage team hired by the ship's owners went aboard and shut off some valves to the ship's tanks before renewed explosions rocked the vessel. They also recovered the bodies of the two known fatalities.
The team members got off the ship before the explosions.
The cause of the explosions was not immediately known.
The tanker, operated by Mosvolds Shipping of Farsund, Norway, was bound from Palanca, Angola. It was scheduled to travel to Aruba after Galveston.
ELF, a Houston-based oil distributor that was going to market the tanker's cargo, is paying for the cleanup, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Howard Holmes.
by CNB