The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An explosion in a 20-foot-container at the Port of Los Angeles Wednesday brought the bomb squad to the shipping complex and prompted the longshore workers union to shut down the terminal.
The explosion occurred at the Trans Pacific Container Service Corp. terminal around 1:30 p.m., said Los Angeles city fire Capt. Jim Wells.
Television footage showed the walls of the steel container bowed outward, the rear doors blown off and its contents -- mostly red soda cans and other food products -- strewn about like candy from a pinata.
The container was on top of a small tractor-trailer when the explosion occurred, but the driver was uninjured, said Dave Arian with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 13.
However, the container was set to be placed on a ship just below a container that had hazardous materials inside, Arian said.
“If the explosion had happened after the hazardous cargo container had been placed on top, we might have had toxic materials blanketing the longshore workers and floating all over Wilmington and San Pedro,” he said.
The cause of the explosion was not clear, though officials told KABC-TV it may have been a propane tank inside the container that blew up.
The container was set to be loaded on the ship The Micronesian Heritage, which was picking up 74 containers en route to Samoa and other pacific ports.
Arian said the explosion shows that security at the port complex is not as tight as it should be.
“We have been fighting for the proper inspection of all containers coming into the port, but the shipping companies are not interested in protecting the port community,” he said.
The Port of Los Angeles is the nation’s busiest, handling millions of containers annually.