Office of Public Affairs
U.S. Coast Guard

Date: Nov. 06, 2004

Contact:  PA3 Stacey Pardini
(504) 589-6287

Coast Guard responds to facility fire on GIWW

NEW ORLEANS - The Coast Guard along with state and local agencies responded to a fire at the Enervest Bateman Lake Facility Platform in Berwick, La., (near mile marker 99) on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, at about 12:45 p.m. today.

Some of the agencies who responded to the fire included Coast Guard Marine Safety Office personnel, an HH-65B rescue helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans, personnel from the St. Mary's Parish Sheriffs Department, Berwick, La., Fire Department and the Bayou Vista, La., Fire Department.

The Captain of the Port closed the GIWW at about 1 p.m. to all vessel traffic and reopened the waterway around 4 p.m. today.

It is estimated that less than 100 gallons of crude oil has been released into the water. 

No injuries have been reported and all personnel have been accounted for.

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