Fire closes terminals in Los Angeles Long Beach

With 90 percent of fire contained, terminals reopened Tuesday evening.    A fire at a wharf at the Port of Los Angeles that started Monday night was 90-percent contained by Tuesday afternoon, and shipping terminals reopened in the evening.
   The blaze, fed by pilings treated with creosote, was battled by the Los Angeles Fire Department and the Long Beach Fire Department, and shut down container terminals in Los Angeles, and three terminals in the neighboring Port of Long Beach, for much of the day.
   The Port of Los Angeles said its terminals reopened Tuesday evening.
   It said only the fire location, the Pasha Terminal at Berth 177, would remain closed.
   That terminal handles breakbulk cargo such as steel. According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, the fire burned under a steel warehouse causing a collapse of areas of the flooring and large coils of steel to fall to the water below. It said strategic use of a backhoe to create a large trench in the wharf halted the fire’s progress, which was confined to the wharf and under the warehouse.
   The fire was reportedly caused by a welding torch. Some schools were evacuated because of the fire, reported the Los Angeles Times.
   The fire department said, “An aggressive fire attack was mounted by LAFD’s Fire Boats, as highly trained divers entered the dangerous and dark waters to assault the blaze from below the pier. Firefighters were met with many challenges including the highly flammable creosote soaked timbers supporting the concrete wharf, which were inaccessible from land.”
   It continued, “During the firefight, two large cargo ships were moved to a safe location as a precaution. Over 170 firefighters, all under the command of Deputy Chief Mario Rueda, contained the bulk of the fire in just under two hours. The stubborn, hard-to-reach fire smoldered for hours.”
   The fire department said, “The smoke caused the overnight closure of several shipping terminals, leading to the evacuation of over 850 dock workers as a precaution. Harbor-area residents were advised to avoid the smoke, close windows and stay inside. “
   The Los Angeles Times reported that several schools in the area were closed.