Massive fire breaks out aboard scrap metal barge on Delaware Bay

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NEW CASTLE, Del. (AP) — A massive fire broke out Tuesday morning on a barge carrying huge piles of scrap metal on the Delaware Bay and was still burning by the evening.

The U.S. Coast Guard responded after 8 a.m. to reports of the fire and dispatched a helicopter and two boats, Petty Officer First Class Matthew West said. Local fire departments, including those from Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware, also responded. A tugboat was moving the unmanned barge at the time of the fire, West said, adding there were no injuries. The Delaware Bay is an estuary of the Delaware River between Delaware and New Jersey.

The Coast Guard said the barge was being towed about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) off Maurice River Cove in New Jersey, in order to remove the threat from the main ship channel.

Ship traffic also was not impacted by the fire that was still burning several hours later, he said. The barge appeared to be standing still as boats on both sides of it fired water cannons into the piles of burning metal. Smoke billowed from several fires aboard the boat for most of the day.

West said the cause of the fire remained under investigation.

In a statement, the Delaware Emergency Management Agency said the barge was being moved to shallower water and that the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control was monitoring air quality. But the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control later said it was not doing any air monitoring.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection also said it was working closely with the Coast Guard and the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management in responding to the fire. It said that it was monitoring “for potential impacts to air quality as well as water quality and ecological resources of the Delaware Bay.” It had no further details.

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This story corrects that the Delaware Emergency Management Agency, not the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, put out a statement on the barge fire. It also corrects that the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control was conducting air monitoring. It is not.