Vacationers Flee Oil Spill on Popular Puerto Rico Beach : Environment: About 750,000 gallons spew out when barge runs aground. Containment equipment is en route to island.

A thin coating of oil covered some beaches here and the usually fragrant sea breezes carried the smell of petroleum Friday night after a barge ran aground on a reef just offshore and spilled about half its load, chasing tourists away at the height of the vacation season.

About 750,000 gallons of No. 6 heavy heating oil spilled from the Morris J. Burman barge, which was carrying more than 1.5 million gallons of oil. Officials said that high winds and waves buffeting the barge threatened to magnify the disaster.

Gov. Pedro Rossello called the spill “a catastrophe,” and said he hoped a quick cleanup would ease the blow for the island’s tourism industry.

The spill did not appear to affect resorts outside San Juan.

Many hotels along the Atlantic beachfront moved guests to higher floors to escape the nauseating fumes. Some sent their visitors by bus to other resorts on the island for the day.

Workers put floating barriers in place in an attempt to limit the damage to a mile-long strip of beachfront. A barge with a pump also was being brought in to remove oil from the barge.

“The barge is continuing to lose cargo into the water,” U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Robert Ross said, adding that it is “entirely likely that more damage could occur to the barge.”

Although the sides and the main deck of the barge were intact, Ross said, there was an unknown amount of damage to the bottom and the internal bulkheads.

After nightfall Friday, the barge could be seen under the glare of bright spotlights, and tourists from the nearby hotels stood on balconies and verandas to get a glimpse.

“It smells just like it does at home,” said Ren Hotle, whose home is in Caspar, Wyo., a major oil-producing state. He had just arrived in San Juan with his wife, Jackie, to catch a cruise ship on Sunday.

“At home they say this smells like money. But I doubt if they are saying that here,” he said.

One tourist, Betty Sue Cooper of Dallas, said she had arrived Thursday and may go the Bahamas. “I just don’t believe it,” she told the Associated Press. “I walked down here (to the beach) ready to lay in the sun. This is terrible.”

The sand in front of her hotel was coated with slimy black oil and the water glimmered black.

“How do you stay on the beach if you can’t go to the beach?” said Joel Klarreich of New York, who was ending a week’s vacation Friday with his wife.

“I’m glad we’re leaving,” Lynn Klarreich said.

The spill presented the Clinton Administration with its first major environmental emergency, and officials were quick to respond.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena, EPA Administrator Carol Browner and Coast Guard Commandant J. William Kime flew here to inspect the damage.

Although the crippled vessel held less than one-sixth of the amount of oil that spilled in 1989 from the Exxon Valdez in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, the widening slick posed an immediate economic threat.

There was no early estimate of the cost of cleanup efforts, and Ross refused to speculate on the cause of the spill.

“Fish, wildlife, marine life is going to be affected. They’re going to die,” said Jose Burgos, duty officer for Puerto Rico’s civil defense agency.

The barge is owned by Standard Tank of Bayonne, N.J., according to Bill Preusch, a manager at the company. Preusch told the Associated Press that the barge had been chartered to another company, which he would not identify.

Ross said the barge was owned by New England Marine Services. There was no explanation for the discrepancy.

The Coast Guard said that the barge was heading to Antigua with the load of oil.