March 26, 2024 - Baltimore Key Bridge collapses after ship collision

Baltimore City Fire Chief James Wallace said the team responding to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse continues to grow as an active marine search operation is underway.

The mission started with 50 personnel including eight dive teams and continues to grow, Wallace told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Tuesday. 

Sonar has been used to mark vehicles that have been found in the water, Wallace said. 

One patient was transported to a local trauma center and is in serious condition, Wallace said, while another person who was on the bridge refused service and wasn’t injured.

Wallace said harbor containment boom has been placed around the vessel to try to contain the oil sheen. He said they smelled diesel fuel early this morning when it was still dark before they could actually see the sheen.

Authorities shared updates on the investigation along with the search-and-rescue operation underway after the collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Here's all the critical details:

Baltimore's mayor on Tuesday said the focus in the city remains on the search for the six people still unaccounted for after the bridge collapse earlier in the day.

“This is an unthinkable and unspeakable tragedy,” Mayor Brandon Scott told CNN's Phil Mattingly.

First responders are still “actively looking” for six people, the mayor said, noting that the bridge is iconic in Baltimore and that many residents don't recall a time when it wasn't visible in the harbor.

The Key Bridge, built in the 1970s, served as the outermost crossing of the Baltimore Harbor.

When asked about rebuilding, Scott said:

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said he talked to the worker who made it off the collapsed bridge unharmed. The worker described seeing the ship come toward the bridge in the moments before the collision, the governor said Tuesday.

According to officials, there were eight construction workers on the bridge at the time of the incident. Six are still unaccounted for, and two were rescued. Of those, one was taken to the hospital and the other was OK, they said.

"The moments between when the crew called for a mayday and the moments that the bridge actually collapsed, we're talking seconds," Moore said on CNN.

The governor said the fact that the person survived and was able to converse was "pretty miraculous when you consider what happened and the speed and the intensity of which it happened last night."

Moore said the person told him they did see the ship as it was coming toward the bridge, but that wasn't an unusual sight for the workers: They saw ships coming and going every night, the governor said.

The bridge collapse that has indefinitely halted the flow of ships in and out of the Port of Baltimore could hurt the local economy, strain supply chains and scramble deliveries along the US East Coast.

The Key Bridge collapsed after a container vessel called Dali collided with one of its supports. Dali is operated by Singapore-based Synergy Group but had been chartered to carry cargo by Danish shipping giant Maersk.

Baltimore ranks as the ninth biggest US port for international cargo. It handled a record 52.3 million tons, valued at $80.8 billion, in 2023. According to the Maryland state government, the port supports 15,330 direct jobs and 139,180 jobs in related services.

Baltimore is also the leading US port for farming and construction machinery, as well as imports of sugar and gypsum, and the second in the country for exporting coal.

In the long run: Despite the potential for some increased cost of shipping and some traffic tie-ups and congestion, Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, said the disruptions aren’t likely to cause problems for the US economy as a whole since the goods are likely to find other ports.

Part of the issue in determining the potential added costs to shipping is the unknown of how long the port stays closed. And it’s too early to say when ships will begin calling on the port once again, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Monday.

Senior White House adviser Tom Perez told reporters Tuesday that “it’s too early” to tell how long it will take to rebuild the Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge. 

President Joe Biden has called in “every federal agency with any sort of expertise or equity” to work on the bridge, he added.

Separately, Perez also did not rule out the possibility of “litigation or other efforts” that would seek compensation for the costs of rebuilding the bridge.

The Baltimore bridge collapse will have a serious impact on supply chains, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday.

Some background: Baltimore is the ninth biggest US port for international cargo. According to the Maryland state government, the port supports 15,330 direct jobs and 139,180 jobs in related services.

Until the channel is reopened, ships will likely already be changing course for other East Coast ports.

The DALI, the ship that hit the bridge and caused the collapse, was the only container vessel in the port at the time of the collision – but seven container vessels had been scheduled to arrive Through Saturday, said Judah Levine, a researcher at logistics firm Freightos.

CNN's Chris Isidore and Hanna Ziady contributed to this report.

This post was updated with more background on the post.

Members of the US Coast Guard have detected an oil sheen on the water near the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, but they have not yet determined the source of the fuel discharge, according to USCG Petty Officer Kimberly Reaves.

USCG Command Center officials haven’t yet determined whether the sheen is the result of a fuel spill from the ship that collided with the Key bridge, or if it’s from the vehicles on the bridge that fell into the water after the collision, Reaves told CNN. Officials also do not yet know how much fuel has spilled into the water, Reaves added. 

A spokesperson from the Environmental Protection Agency told CNN they haven’t received any information from USCG confirming a fuel leak happened. EPA does have an on-scene coordinator ready to assist, according to EPA Region 3 spokesperson Shaun Eagan. 

Maryland Department of the Environment officials are conducting water sampling both upriver and downriver of the site of the bridge collapse, according to department spokesperson Jay Apperson. 

Apperson said the state is coordinating “closely” with the US Coast Guard and other agencies.

Vice President Kamala Harris said the federal government has directed its resources to help with the ongoing search and rescue operation in Baltimore after a bridge collapsed on Tuesday.

At the beginning of her remarks in North Carolina, she said she spoke with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.

The federal resources will be used to "assist with the search and rescue, to reopen the port, and to rebuild the bridge as quickly as possible. And of course, I know we all will stand and continue to stand with the people of Maryland," Harris said.

Earlier Tuesday, in remarks from the White House, President Joe Biden told reporters he’d directed his team “to move heaven and earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible,” promising to travel to Baltimore “as quickly as I can” to survey the damage himself.