Chemical Spills Onto Ship, Then Into Harbor; 2 Workers Injured

Two ship workers were hospitalized Sunday after being exposed to a flammable chemical that leaked from a large tank aboard a ship in San Pedro.

A container of acetonitrile weighing almost 16 tons was being offloaded from the tanker Ming Ocean early Sunday morning when it fell onto the ship’s deck and cracked open, U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman Beth Hoeferkamp said.

An unknown amount of the chemical, a colorless, moderately toxic industrial solvent, was spilled into the harbor, Hoeferkamp said.

However, the water-soluble chemical posed no major health risks and would not affect wildlife or marine life in the area, she added.

“Right now, there’s more of a danger of a fire on the ship than a health or environmental hazard,” Hoeferkamp said.

Because the chemical evaporates slowly, firefighters and a hazardous materials team quickly cleaned off the ship’s deck to neutralize the fire danger, Hoeferkamp said.

The spill occurred at the Indies terminal south of the Vincent Thomas Bridge, Port of Los Angeles spokesman Chuck Ellis said.

Port traffic on the west side of the affected channel was briefly restricted, Ellis said.

The two injured workers, whose names were not available, complained of nausea and shortness of breath and were taken to San Pedro Peninsula Hospital, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman said. Neither was believed to be seriously injured.

Crew members and longshoremen who were working on board the Taiwanese vessel at the time of the spill were briefly evacuated as a precaution, Ellis said.

“You don’t want any human life to be in danger,” Ellis said. “But the fact is that when you are unloading tens of thousands of pounds of products like this, it’s always going to be dangerous. We don’t want to take any chances.”

The harbor was shut down Feb. 22 for 24 hours because authorities feared a chemical spill aboard a freighter could produce highly explosive toxic fumes.