Threat of Fire Keeps Tanker in L.A. Port

A 623-foot tanker laden with volatile jet fuel remained confined to the Port of Los Angeles on Tuesday after a U.S. Coast Guard inspection discovered unsafe conditions that could have led to an explosion or fire.

The Coast Guard’s marine safety office in Long Beach detained the Tomis West on Monday after investigators found 33 deficiencies on board, many of them related to safety and firefighting equipment.

The Tomis West--loaded with 275,000 gallons of fuel--is docked in an area of the harbor filled with storage tanks and oil facilities.

Inspectors said they were very concerned that the tanker’s system for controlling dangerous fumes while unloading flammable cargo was not working properly.

Hazardous vapor can build up in the holds as fuel is pumped out, presenting the potential for an explosion or fire. To reduce the risk, tankers have devices that lower oxygen levels in the holds to a safe level. Lt. Cmdr. Joe Lo Sciuto, who is in charge of ship inspections in the port, said that levels aboard the Tomis West were more than twice the safe amount.

“Tank ships in general are the Cadillacs of the shipping industry,” Lo Sciuto said. “But on this one, we found a lot of problems we were surprised to see. They could have produced a very hazardous situation.”

The Coast Guard prohibited the crew from unloading the fuel until safe oxygen levels are reached and the ship’s main firefighting systems are repaired.

The Coast Guard found that only one of the three water pumps for the firefighting system was working, but not very well.

Inspectors said they found corroded nozzles on fire hoses and problems with equipment that discharges carbon dioxide in case of an engine room fire. Problems were also discovered with the ship’s steering gear, a lack of navigational charts and a faulty sprinkler system in the lifeboat that is supposed to protect crew members from fire if they abandon ship.

Lo Sciuto said Tuesday that the Tomis West cannot leave port until the deficiencies are corrected. Even then, he added, the Coast Guard may decide to ban the ship from all U.S. ports.

“We are now working with the charter company to make sure that certain safety requirements are met,” Lo Sciuto said. “Once they are, we will give them the go-ahead to unload the cargo.”

Officials for Transmarine Navigation Co. in Long Beach, the ship’s agent, declined to comment Tuesday. Representatives of the vessel’s owner, First Petromin Shipping Co. Ltd. in Malta, could not be reached for comment.

The Coast Guard boarded the Tomis West after an inspector for the International Transport Workers Federation notified the agency about potential problems with the ship’s firefighting equipment.

The federation, an alliance of more than 500 unions, has been working with the ship’s Romanian crew in an attempt to recover unpaid wages from First Petromin.

Rudy Vanderhider, a federation inspector based in the county’s ports, said the crew has managed to recover $167,000 in back pay.

The Tomis West is registered in the Bahamas. The transport federation has identified the island state as a so-called flag of convenience, which offers ship owners tax breaks and minimal regulation of conditions on their vessels.

Vanderhider said that three crew members, including the first and second engineers, want off the ship and have asked to be flown home. Vanderhider said the owner has yet to comply with the request.

“This ship is definitely a bad one,” Vanderhider said.

The last time a tanker exploded in the Port of Los Angeles was in December 1976. The blast broke windows more than 20 miles away and killed five people.