DRAMATIC footage has captured the moment a cargo ship exploded in Baltimore.
A fireball was seen coming from the vessel before plumes of thick smoke filled the air on Monday evening.
The blast happened on board the W-Sapphire vessel – a Liberian registered ship that is heading to Port Louis, Mauritius.
And, it happened in the Patapsco River near to where the city’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in March 2024.
No injuries were reported and all 23 people on board the cargo ship were accounted for.
The ship stayed afloat and was assisted by tug boats, according to the Baltimore Fire Department.
But, officials said the boat showed signs consistent with a fire and an explosion.
The vessel, which is 751 foot long, is being moved to an anchorage area and is being investigated by the Coast Guard.
Video showing smoke coming from the vessel, which was built in 2012, was shared online.
And, witnesses recalled what they saw.
“We heard a huge explosion,” Jay Steinmetz, who was on board a sailboat at the time, told the Fox affiliate WTTG-TV.
“At first, I assumed they were demolishing part of the bridge, but when I turned my head, it was clear there was a massive 200-foot smoke plume rising from the boat we had just observed.”
Steinmetz thought officials were demolishing what was remaining of the Francis Scott Key Bridge when he heard the explosion.
The cause of the blast remains unknown at this time.
Coast Guard officials have created a 2,000-yard safety zone around the blast site.
The explosion comes more than a year after six construction workers were killed when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse
The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, collapsed after a cargo ship bound for Asia smashed into one of its support pillars:
- On the morning of March 26, the Dali, a 985-foot Singapore-flagged ship, left the Baltimore port as it set sail on its 27-day voyage to Sri Lanka.
- Within minutes, the massive cargo vessel experienced power outages as it crashed into one of the pillars of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
- The immediate impact caused the bridge to snap and tumble into the Patapsco River.
- A team of eight construction workers were making road repairs and filling in potholes on the bridge at the time of the incident.
- Six of the eight workmen who fell into the waters died.
- The victims were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, Dorlian Castillo Cabrera, Miguel Luna, Maynor Suazo Sandoval, Jose Lopez, and Carlos Hernandez – all of whom were Latino immigrants hailing from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.
- The two workers recovered from the wreckage were identified as Alejandro Fuentes, 35, from Mexico, and Dorlian Castillo Cabrera, 26, from Guatemala.
The bridge came crashing down in seconds after the container ship Dali hit a supporting pier in March 2024.
The collapse of the bridge sent ripples through supply chains, as cargo ships were suddenly unable to navigate through the Port of Baltimore right after the incident occurred.
The Port of Baltimore is a major hub for the import and export of cars.
And, it’s among the top 20 ports in the US in terms of the number of containers handled.
It proved to be the deadliest bridge collapse the US had seen in more than a decade.
Officials estimate the replacement bridge, which is set to cost more than $1.7 billion, will be completed by 2028.
But, demolition work, which started in July, will take around nine months to complete.
