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Firefighters respond to a fire aboard a ship Thursday in Jacksonville, Fla. An explosion occurred while crews were fighting the blaze.
(AP/The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department)
Firefighters respond to a fire aboard a ship Thursday in Jacksonville, Fla. An explosion occurred while crews were fighting the blaze. (AP/The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department)

Firefighters injured in ship explosion

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Nine firefighters responding to a fire aboard a ship in Florida have been hospitalized after the ship exploded, injuring eight and causing heat exhaustion in another, authorities said.

The explosion occurred nearly three hours after firefighters responded to a ship at Blount Island after reports of a fire Thursday, the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department tweeted. The ship, a Norwegian vessel called Hoegh Xiamen, was carrying old and used cars and had been scheduled to leave Jacksonville, First Coast News reported.

More than 20 crew members on the ship during the initial fire were able to safely get off before the explosion occurred, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, and the blast happened with "crews inside fighting fire," Jacksonville Fire Chief Keith Powers said.

Of the nine firefighters hospitalized, four were treated for burns, one was taken into surgery for injuries Thursday night and another firefighter has been in intensive care, news outlets reported. All the firefighters were stable, Powers said.

Nearly 150 firefighters rotated in teams to battle the blaze, Powers said.

"This is one of the days where you roll up on something like this and it's one of the worst things probably in a career that you will ever do," Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighters President Randy Wyse told the Florida Times-Union.

Investigators are trying to determine what caused the fire.

Tropical storm in Gulf on path to coast

A storm that appears to be headed for the U.S. Gulf Coast regained tropical storm force Friday while drenching southern Mexico and Central America.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tropical Storm Cristobal had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was moving north at 12 mph. It crossed the Yucatan Peninsula on Friday and re-entered the Gulf of Mexico. It was expected to pass through the central Gulf today and near the U.S. coast late Sunday, strengthening as it goes.

On Friday afternoon it was centered about 535 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River.

A tropical storm watch was issued for the northern Gulf of Mexico coast from Intracoastal City, La., to the Alabama-Florida border.

The Hurricane Center's projected track shows the storm reaching the U.S. Gulf Coast by early Monday, and it said Cristobal could bring heavy rains from East Texas to Florida this weekend and into early next week.

In Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards on Thursday declared a state of emergency to prepare for the storm's possible arrival there.

Reporter's White House pass restored

President Donald Trump's former press secretary imposed an "unprecedented sanction" unfairly and probably illegally by suspending a White House correspondent's special-access media credential, a federal appeals court in Washington ruled Friday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously upheld an order restoring journalist Brian Karem's press pass, finding the reporter did not receive "fair notice" that the press secretary "might punish his purportedly unprofessional conduct."

Karem, a correspondent for Playboy magazine and CNN contributor, sued former press secretary Stephanie Grisham after his hard pass was pulled for 30 days following a verbal confrontation in the Rose Garden last summer.

"A thirty-day forced hiatus inflicts considerably more than a reputational injury on a journalist, for whom sustained access is essential currency," wrote Judge David Tatel, who was joined by Judges Sri Srinivasan and Cornelia T.L. Pillard.

The court noted that until last year, a press secretary had never even briefly suspended a hard pass based on a journalist's unprofessional conduct at a White House event, even though the court cited historical examples of reporters "rudely interrupting" presidents and berating press secretaries.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the ruling.

Texas family of 6 found dead in garage

SAN ANTONIO -- Six members of a military family, including four children between the ages of 11 months and 4, were found dead in their SUV in the family's garage in San Antonio, apparently after suffering from intentional carbon monoxide poisoning, police said.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said the smell of carbon dioxide was so strong when officers arrived that it "kind of blew everybody back out the door." He said police had gone to the house for a welfare check requested by the husband's employer, who had been unable to reach him.

Police at one point suspected the house might be rigged with explosives but found none, McManus said. Two cats were also found dead in the front seat of the SUV.

McManus said there was evidence that "it was not an accident," and he did not suggest that anyone outside the family was involved. He said the parents were in their 30s but did not disclose their names. The family, which had moved into the house in January, had military ties, McManus said, but he would not say which branch.

A Section on 06/06/2020

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