[thackney]

http://abc13.com/news/fire-crews-battle-flames-on-houston-ship-channel-vessel-/1121782/

Fire crews worked to extinguish flames seen on the deck of the Navigator Europa docked at the Port of Houston.

A stretch of the ship channel is closed near the ship.

The Coast Guard says the motor caught fire on the ship. The Coast Guard as well as the Port of Houston and the Houston Fire Department is working to put the fire out.

The Coast Guard says initial reports indicate the ship was transferring ethylene. There’s no word yet on whether the chemical was the source of the fire. Ethylene is used to control fruit ripening.

[Steely Tom]

Vessel fires in the Houston Ship Channel make me queasy, and I’m fourteen hundred miles away from it

[MrBambaLaMamba]

Were there any Muslims around before the fire started?

[slumber1]

Here's a pretty cool webcam of the ship channel looking down from the San Jacinto Monument. Watch tugs and tankers sail to and from the refineries. The Battleship Texas is moored just to the right.

San Jacinto Monument Cam

[Terry L Smith]

Looking for that darn black enameled bird statuette again, methinks.

[Vinnie]

Texas City 1947

[thackney]

The Houston Ship Channel was re-opened after a burning tanker prompted a nearly three-hour shutdown of a two-mile-long (3.20-km-long) section of the largest petrochemical port in the United States.

The fire was extinguished nearly 90 minutes after it started, but the channel remained closed for nearly another 90 minutes as firefighters monitored the air to ensure no toxic fumes lingered, Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Andrew Kendrick said.

“Initially it was a big fire, but it came down pretty quickly,” he said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/shipping-houston-fire-idUSL1N14315Y20151214