BARGE EXPLOSION ROCKS STATEN ISLAND

BARGE EXPLOSION ROCKS STATEN ISLAND    A barge owned by Bouchard Transportation exploded Friday morning while unloading 100,000 barrels of unleaded gasoline at the Port Mobile fuel storage facility on Staten Island, N.Y.
   Two Bouchard employees who were working on the barge were still missing Friday afternoon.
   U.S. Coast Guard officials had no comment on reports from some eyewitnesses that the barge unloading the gasoline had been struck by another barge moments before the explosion.
   The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had no comment, beyond noting that the Port Mobile facility is owned by Exxon Mobil Corp. One Exxon Mobile employee who was badly burned in the explosion remained in critical but stable condition Friday afternoon at Staten Island University Hospital.
   A source at the Howland Hook Container Terminal, Inc., which is on another side of Staten Island, told Shippers’ News Wire that Howland Hook had not been affected by the blast. No blockage of the Arthur Kill channel, which separates Staten Island and New Jersey, was reported or anticipated at Howland Hook.
   Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the barge had unloaded half of its cargo at the time of the explosion. “There is no evidence and no reason that this is anything other than a very tragic industrial accident,” he said.
   During the fire that followed the explosion, officials used tugs to push another nearby gasoline-laden barge across the Arthur Kill waterway.
   The Outerbridge Crossing was closed to Staten Island-bound traffic from New Jersey, and two-way traffic was halted temporarily on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, which connects Staten Island and Brooklyn.