nsedet
10-30-2001, 17:14
Just heard this on the news at lunch, maybe one of the USCS folks on the board has additional details.
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Three found dead on ship bringing in scrap metal
The Associated Press
10/30/01 6:00 PM
LAPLACE, La. (AP) -- Three men, including a U.S. Customs agent, died Tuesday in the hold of a ship that was bringing in scrap metal to a steel mill, authorities said.
The three men apparently went into an area of the hold about 3 a.m. that had an insufficient amount of oxygen, passed out and died, said Capt. Mike Tregre, a spokesman for the St. John the Baptist sheriff.
Mike Palmer, assistant chief of the LaPlace fire department, said ship crew members had removed one of the men when firefighters arrived. Firefighters with breathing equipment entered the hold and removed the other two.
The agent went into the hold for a routine inspection and the ship's captain and a crew member followed him in after the inspector did not return, said Dean Boyd, a Customs spokesman.
Their identities were not immediately released. Autopsies were pending.
A second customs inspector and a crew member were hospitalized, Boyd said.
Customs, the Coast Guard, the sheriff's office and the FBI were investigating.
The ship, the Panamanian-flagged Sakura I, had docked at the Port of Gramercy to make a delivery to Bayou Steel Corp. The vessel had come from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Boyd said.
The freighter contained ferrous scrap, a product used in steelmaking, and was undergoing a routine inspection prior to its tranfer to Bayou Steel, the company said.
Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
_____________________________________________
Three found dead on ship bringing in scrap metal
The Associated Press
10/30/01 6:00 PM
LAPLACE, La. (AP) -- Three men, including a U.S. Customs agent, died Tuesday in the hold of a ship that was bringing in scrap metal to a steel mill, authorities said.
The three men apparently went into an area of the hold about 3 a.m. that had an insufficient amount of oxygen, passed out and died, said Capt. Mike Tregre, a spokesman for the St. John the Baptist sheriff.
Mike Palmer, assistant chief of the LaPlace fire department, said ship crew members had removed one of the men when firefighters arrived. Firefighters with breathing equipment entered the hold and removed the other two.
The agent went into the hold for a routine inspection and the ship's captain and a crew member followed him in after the inspector did not return, said Dean Boyd, a Customs spokesman.
Their identities were not immediately released. Autopsies were pending.
A second customs inspector and a crew member were hospitalized, Boyd said.
Customs, the Coast Guard, the sheriff's office and the FBI were investigating.
The ship, the Panamanian-flagged Sakura I, had docked at the Port of Gramercy to make a delivery to Bayou Steel Corp. The vessel had come from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Boyd said.
The freighter contained ferrous scrap, a product used in steelmaking, and was undergoing a routine inspection prior to its tranfer to Bayou Steel, the company said.
Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved.