Trump administration silent on Port of Los Angeles containership fire

The president of the largest US port said the Trump administration did not offer assistance after a fire broke out on a container ship on Friday and continues to burn outside the port.

“I’ve been trying to set up meetings with Trump’s cabinet officials and [U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer] Gene Seroka, general manager of the Port of Los Angeles, told CNBC on Sunday.

USTR, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An electrical fire broke out on the lower deck of the Ocean Network Express (ONE) container ship One Henry Hudson at 18:38 local time on Friday. Los Angeles Fire Department. Shortly before 8 p.m. LAFD He said that an explosion shook the ship and cut off the electricity of the lights and cranes.

Due to the hazardous material on board, nearby residents were ordered to shelter in place. The shelter-in-place order was lifted on Saturday.

According to a ONE spokesperson, all crew members aboard One Henry Hudson have been securely identified. Port chief Seroka said about 117 of the 8,000 containers on the ship were physically damaged.

“ONE is deeply concerned by this incident and is monitoring the situation closely. We thank the first responders on the ground and remain fully committed to supporting incident management and subsequent investigations,” a ONE spokesperson said. he said.

On Saturday, the ship was moved four miles offshore to prevent the fire from damaging the port infrastructure. The terminal later resumed operations.

“The ship was about two-thirds full,” Seroka said. “Once all the hot spots are gone, we need to evaluate how much of the cargo was lost due to the amount of water used to stop the fire.”

Vizion’s data scientists, who track containers on ships in real time, said the containers on the ship contain machines; for auto parts Toyota Motor; components for Caterpillar; fresh fruit; Nike additional shoes of unidentified brands for shoes, tennis shoes, clothing and sportswear; iron and steel components for automobile manufacturer honda engine; frozen beef for multiple shippers Hilton Food Solutions; and medical personal protective equipment, or PPE.

Director Seroka said the faster the administration pushes for cleanup, the sooner U.S. companies will know whether their cargo can be considered lost.

“I’ve been doing this job for 12 years,” Seroka said. “U.S. companies need to know the status of their cargo. We’re working as quickly as we can, but we need the federal government to step in and move this forward faster.”

Seroka said he met with Maryland Governor Wes Moore. Moore’s office connected Seroka to the administrator who oversaw the commission responsible for cleaning the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

“I’m reaching out to everyone I know,” Seroka said.

US Coast Guard is leading rescue plan. A spokesperson from the U.S. Coast Guard joint information center, which is responsible for the operation, told CNBC that the fire was under control and a fire boat was on standby to both extinguish and cool the fire.

Still, there is no coordination at the federal level to handle the cleanup, Seroka said.

“We know that when the Trump administration came in, things got done faster,” he said.

“The Port of Los Angeles is the largest container port in the Western Hemisphere and the busiest in North America,” Seroka emphasized. “Management should contact us”

“Thank God, our terminals are working, but there is load loss and a big cleaning ahead of us,” he said.

Seroka said the lack of coordination and even contact with Trump administration officials was in stark contrast to his experience with previous administrations.

“I met with the Prime Minister” [Joe Biden] three times during his presidency. I also met [former Secretary of Transportation] “Pete Buttigieg,” he said. “During the Obama administration, I met Pete Buttigieg. [former Commerce Secretary] Penny Pritzker and [former Secretary of Labor] Thomas Perez.”

Seroka said the president also had no contact with Trump administration officials during his first term; This is notable considering former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao’s family owns and operates New York-based global shipping company Foremost Group.

Insurers say what makes the One Henry Hudson fire different is that it occurred on a pier at a U.S. port.

“Fires on container ships are notoriously difficult to fight,” said John Miklus, president of the American Institute of Marine Underwriters. Crews have limited firefighting training and resources on a ship, he said, “let alone wind and wave conditions at sea.”

In this case, the ship was on a quiet pier by the beach, and you had trained professional firefighters and fire boats on the scene to fight the fire, Miklus said.

“Despite all this support, it took hours to bring the situation under control,” Miklus said.

For marine insurers, the problems created by ship fires are compounded by undeclared or misdeclared cargo such as Lithium-Ion batteries and other hazardous cargo.

Seroka confirmed that such potentially hazardous materials were on board.

“When they catch fire, you can’t put out that fire,” Seroka said. “That’s one of the reasons we took the ship out of the harbor.”

As the U.S. Coast Guard continues to work to extinguish the fire, the need for federal administration officials to participate in the cleanup has become critical.

“There is federally approved work related to container ship fire cleanup,” Seroka said.

“We need pressure from the Trump administration to get them to act,” he said, adding, “It will take time to clean this up once the fire is completely out.”