TV Sichem Defiance; Gravesend Bay, NY

Gravesend Bay, NY | 2010-Jan-10

Initial Notification: NEW YORK (AP) - A tanker with 41,000 barrels of ethanol on board has a ruptured tank off of Brooklyn's Gravesend Bay and officials are evacuating all vessels from the area. The New York Fire Department and the Coast Guard say there have been no reports of injuries and no ethanol spilled off the 443-foot ship. Firefighters have sprayed the vessel with foam as a precaution. The Coast Guard says the Sichem Defiance was offloading 55,000 barrels of ethanol when the rupture happened. The tanker master told officials that the main deck of the vessel collapsed and caused the incident. The Coast Guard says the evacuation of the area is a precaution.