On Friday, July 7, 2006 at 11:41 a.m., 10 companies of Los Angeles firefighters, six LAFD rescue ambulances, one urban search and rescue unit, one rehab/air tender unit, one hazardous materials task force, two EMS battalion captains, four battalion chief officer command teams, one command post unit and a division chief officer command team under the direction of Assistant Chief Ralph Terrazas responded to assist the United States Coast Guard with a Hazardous Materials Investigation at Berth 118 in the Port of Los Angeles.
Firefighters arrived quickly and staged in readiness to assist the Coast Guard in their already active analysis and stabilization of a potentially hazardous condition aboard the Probo Elk, a 600-foot long bulk-liquid tank ship of Marshall Islands registry.
Prior to that response...
On the Probo Elk's arrival from South Korea the night before, a Los Angeles Fire Department Marine Task Force boarded the craft at 9:11 p.m. to complete a routine and legally mandated inspection. Shortly after arrival, they noted an apparent spill of flammable liquid within the confines of the ship as well as combustible atmosphere alarm activation in one or more of the ship's seven cargo holds.
Pursuant of protocol, the Coast Guard was notified and rapidly responded to the ship, relieving firefighters of scene management as they worked with the ship's crew through the night to rectify problems with the required and routine insertion of an inert gas into the void space created by the discharge of flammable fuel cargo.
There was no evidence of the fuel leaking into harbor waterways.
LAFD Marine Task Force personnel aboard two fireboats, one land based engine company and one battalion chief were subsequently requested to return to the location at 2:50 a.m. Friday morning, and remained on scene for 55 minutes, before being released by Coast Guard staff.
At 11:41 a.m. Friday, the return of LAFD personnel brought more than 100 firefighters to the location. They remained in staging to protect responders, remaining ship's crew, and the maritime industrial property adjacent to Berth 118 as Coast Guard officials further stabilized the scene.
A 600-yard exclusion zone of non-essential personnel was enacted by firefighters and enforced by port police officers until the volatility of combustible vapors within the cargo hold was lessened.
It was during that 7 hour and 12 minute standby that one Los Angeles firefighter sustained a significant finger injury. Following basic treatment at the scene, he was transported by ambulance to Little Company of Mary San Pedro Hospital, where he was placed off-duty following emergency room treatment.
No other injuries were reported.
Coast Guard personnel released the aforementioned Los Angeles firefighters early Friday evening.
LAFD resources were summoned to the site one final time at 8:22 p.m. Friday to accompany the Probo Elk to the open sea, where final repairs, assessment and a possible transfer of remaining product were anticipated to take place offshore under the watchful eye of Coast Guard officials.
The inspection of tanker ships arriving at the Port of Los Angeles is an around-the-clock task for Los Angeles Fire Department personnel. They proudly fulfill this duty in the hope of preventing events similar to disasters that have occurred there in the past.
