Trump administration unresponsive after container ship fire, Port of Los Angeles chief says

The head of the largest port in the United States said the Trump administration has not reached out to offer assistance following a fire that erupted on a container ship on Friday and continues to burn outside of the port.

“I have been trying to set up meetings with Trump Cabinet officials and [U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer] since the inauguration,” Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, told CNBC on Sunday.

Thus far, the U.S. Coast Guard has been leading the salvage plan. A spokesperson with the joint information center of the U.S. Coast Guard in charge of the operation told CNBC the fire is contained and a fire boat is on hand for both fire suppression and cooling.

A Transportation Department spokesperson disputed Seroka’s assertion that the federal response to the container fire has been lacking, citing the Coast Guard’s central role in combating the blaze.

“With respect to the fire, the Coast Guard is the lead government agency as part of the unified command response,” the spokesperson said. “They have coordinated with a number of stakeholders the response to combating the fire, handling the cleanup, maintaining safety zones, and helping the port return to normal operations.”

An electrical fire on a lower deck of the Ocean Network Express, or ONE, container shipOne Henry Hudson started at 6:38 p.m. local time on Friday, according to theLos Angeles Fire Department. Shortly before 8 p.m., the LAFD said an explosion shook the vessel, knocking out power to lights and cranes.

Nearby residents were ordered to shelter in place due to hazardous material on board. The shelter-in-place order was lifted Saturday.

All crew aboard the One Henry Hudson have been safely accounted for, according to a ONE spokesperson. Port chief Seroka said approximately 117 containers were physically damaged out of the 8,000 onboard the vessel.

“ONE is deeply concerned by this incident and is closely monitoring the situation. We thank first responders onsite and remain fully committed to supporting incident management and subsequent investigations,” the ONE spokesperson said.

The USTR and the Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Saturday, the ship was moved four miles out to sea to prevent the fire from damaging the port infrastructure. The terminal then resumed operations.

“The vessel was around two-thirds full,” Seroka said. “Once all the hot spots are out, we need to assess how much of the cargo is lost due to the amount of water used to stop the fire.”

Data scientists from Vizion, which tracks containers on vessels in real time, said the containers on board the ship included machinery; auto parts for Toyota Motor; components for Caterpillar; fresh fruit; Nike footwear, additional footwear from unidentified brands for tennis shoes, apparel and sportswear; iron and steel components for automaker Honda Motor; frozen beef for numerous shippers, including Hilton Food Solutions; and medical personal protective equipment, or PPE.

Seroka said the faster the administration can push for cleanup, the sooner U.S. companies will know whether their cargo can be deemed a loss.

“I’ve been doing this job for 12 years,” said Seroka. “U.S. companies need to know the status of their freight. We are working as fast as we can, but we need the federal government to step in and move this along faster.”

Seroka said he has spoken with Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland. Moore’s office connected Seroka with the executive overseeing the commission for the Francis Scott Key Bridge cleanup.

“I am reaching out to anyone I know,” said Seroka.

Still, Seroka said, there has been no coordination on the federal level to handle the cleanup.

“We know when the Trump administration gets involved, things get done faster,” he said.

“ThePort of Los Angelesis the largest container port in the Western Hemisphere and the busiest in North America,” stressed Seroka. “The administration should be reaching out to us.”

“Thankfully, our terminals are operating, but there is a loss of freight and a massive cleanup ahead of us,” he said.

With respect to cargo loss, “once deemed safe — Unified command will work and coordinate with cargo surveyors to come and check for damage as appropriate,” the DOT spokesperson said.

“There is no specific action DOT can take to expedite that process.”

Seroka said the lack of coordination, or even contact, with Trump administration officials the stands in stark contrast to his experience with previous administrations.

“I met with President [Joe Biden] three times during his presidency. I also met with [former Secretary of Transportation] Pete Buttigieg,” he said.”During the Obama administration, I met with [former Commerce Secretary] Penny Pritzker and [former Secretary of Labor] Thomas Perez.”

Seroka said he also had no contact with Trump administration officials during the president’s first term, which was notable considering the family of Elaine Chao, his former Transportation secretary, owns and operates New York-based global shipping company Foremost Group.

A Transportation Department spokesperson acknowledges that Seroka has yet to hear from Secretary Sean Duffy, but said the port chief met with Sang Yi, the Acting Administrator of Maritime Administration (MARAD) —the U.S. government agency within the Department of Transportation that focuses on the American maritime industry —as recently as June 25.

Insurers say what makes the One Henry Hudson fire different is that it occurred at a berth in a U.S. port.

“Fires aboard container vessels are notoriously difficult to fight,” said John Miklus, president of the American Institute of Marine Underwriters. Crews have limited firefighting training and resources aboard a vessel, he said, “never mind conditions at sea of wind and waves.”

In this case, the vessel was at a calm shoreside berth, Miklus said, and you had trained, professional firefighters and fireboats on scene to battle the fire.

“Even with all of this support, it still took many hours to bring it under control,” said Miklus.

For maritime insurers, the problems posed by vessel fires are compounded by undeclared or misdeclared cargoes, such as lithium-ion batteries and other hazardous freight.

These types of potentially dangerous materials were on board, Seroka confirmed.

“When they catch fire, you cannot put that fire out,” Seroka said. “This is one of the reasons why we moved the vessel out of the port.”

As the U.S. Coast Guard continues to work to put out the blaze, the need for federal administration officials to get involved in the cleanup has become critical.

“There are federally sanctioned jobs that are associated with the cleanup of the containership fire,” Seroka said.

“We need the push by the Trump administration for them to hustle,” he added, “It will take time to clean this up once the fire is completely out.”