A collision between two barges in the Houston Ship Channel early Monday morning ignited a fire on one of the vessels and closed the Intracoastal Waterway until the afternoon.
A Kirby Inland Marine-owned tugboat, the Captain Shorty C, was heading eastbound pushing two barges filled with the gasoline additive cumene. The tugboat Jackie, an Enterprise Marine Services vessel, was heading westbound pushing two barges carrying approximately 1 million gallons each of the highly flammable petroleum product naphtha.
Around 1:20 a.m. as the boats were crossing the intersection of the channel and the Intracoastal Waterway at Bolivar Peninsula, the Captain Shorty C lost power. One of its barges collided with a barge being pushed by the Jackie. The crash sparked a fire aboard the ship hauling naphtha that lasted four hours. It was finally extinguished about 5:25 AM by a Port of Houston fireboat and a T&T Marine Salvage vessel.
U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Andy Kendrick said it was not yet known whether diesel fuel or the naphtha cargo was burning in the fire.
The Intracoastal Waterway was shut down from mile marker 348 to the ship channel until afternoon. According to a spokesman from the Texas General Land Office, it was unlikely that the naphtha would affect the waterway because it evaporates very quickly. Air quality monitoring did not show any risk to the public.
This has been at least the fourth vessel collision this year in the Houston Ship Channel. The waterway is one of the most travelled in the U.S., seeing up to 800 vessels a day at times. In March of last year, a bulk carrier struck a barge owned by Kirby Inland Marine in the channel near the Texas City Dike, causing a spill of around 168,000 gallons of fuel into the water.
Maintenance and Cure, maritime lawyers, have successfully litigated injury claims against many of the largest maritime companies. If you were hurt in a vessel collision, contact us today for assistance.
