The Coast Guard and firefighters from multiple agencies responded March 10 to a massive fire on a scrap metal barge in the lower Delaware River. The blaze near Reedy Island in New Castle County, Del., spread plumes of black smoke and affected air quality as far north as Philadelphia.
Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay was first notified of the fire at 8:20 a.m. when watchstanders received a call from the 114' Donjon Marine tug Douglas J reporting the barge they were towing was on fire.
Live aerial footage from local television stations showed giant piles of scrap metal burning and sending black smoke billowing into the atmosphere. The skies as far north as Philadelphia are hazy and smell of smoke.
The barge was moved to the Bombay anchorage, Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer First Class Matthew West told local news media. Later that day the Coast Guard updated: "The barge is currently being towed to approximately 2 miles off Maurice River Cove, N.J., to remove the threat from the main ship channel, where firefighting efforts will continue."
"Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay has established a safety zone, issued a Broadcast Notice to Mariners, and continues to mitigate the risks this fire poses to the port."
No injuries were reported, as multiple agencies dispatched emergency crews to the incident. Other responders included local fire companies and emergency management from Delaware bayshore communities.
“The barge is carrying salvage metal and is being moved to shallow water where it can be secured to allow responders on-scene to extinguish the fire and complete salvage operations,” according to officials with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, which had personnel on scene to monitor air quality.
Barge fires associated with scrap metal are enough of a hazard that the National Transportation Safety Board in 2023 advised that lithium-ion batteries and other possible ignition sources could pose a fire safety issue in the transportation of scrap materials as cargo.
Although scrap metal cargo is typically nonhazardous and poses a low fire risk, there have been several recent fires involving such cargo. In January 2022, a shoreside pile caught fire in Newark, N.J. Two international vessels carrying scrap material experienced cargo fires in 2022 and in 2017 the Japan Transport Safety Board investigated a scrap metal fire in a vessel’s cargo hold in Fukuoka City, Japan.
In May 2022, the towing vessel Daisy Mae was towing a loaded scrap metal barge northbound in Delaware Bay when fire was discovered on board the barge. The fire burned for 26 hours before it was extinguished by responding fire boats. No injuries or pollution were reported. Damage to the barge was estimated at $7 million.
