The crew of a towboat that capsized in Texas’ Neches River were rescued safely Friday evening, one day after a fire near San Leon, Tx. forced that crew to abandon ship and sent one man to the hospital for smoke inhalation and chest pain, Coast Guard officials said.
The towboat Louise capsized around 6:45 p.m. Friday at mile marker 284 on the Neches, and the four crewmen were picked up by another towboat. After closing the river to traffic, the Coast Guard reopened the waterway with restrictions Saturday.
With a barge and crane in place to stabilize the overturned towboat, river traffic was restricted within 1,000 feet up bound and down board the river with no meeting or passing of vessels allowed, to minimize wakes. A hard boom was deployed to minimize spills, but salvage divers reported all sources of potential leaks from the 6,000 gals. of fuel on board and other fluids were safely plugged, Coast Guard officials said.
In the San Leon incident, the crew of the 50’x22’x8’, 1,200 hp Setton Towing boat Kennedy Grace put out a distress call on VHF channel 16 that a vessel they had under tow, the Dupell Marine LLC 51’x22’x7’ towboat Miss Geri, was on fire. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston got the call, and a 45’ medium response boat from Coast Guard Station Galveston was dispatched to the scene.
All four crew members from the Miss Geri made it onto the Kennedy Grace, and the Coast Guard boat crew took the crewman suffering from smoke inhalation to emergency medical services on shore. The crewman was taken to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston for further treatment. Two Houston city fire boats arrived on scene and extinguished the fire. Coast Guard officials said they are continuing to investigate how the blaze happened.
