Ethanol tanker explodes near Virginia's coast

CHINCOTEAGUE, Va. -- A tanker carrying industrial ethanol exploded and sank about 50 miles off the Virginia coast Saturday night, the Coast Guard said. At least two of the 27 crew members aboard were killed, and rescue crews were still searching for 19 others.

Six crew members rescued were in critical condition, said Lt. Chris Shaffer of Ocean City (Md.) Emergency Services.

The 570-foot tanker flying a Singapore flag made an emergency call just after 6 p.m., saying there had been an explosion on board, said Petty Officer Stacey Pardini of the Coast Guard Atlantic area in Portsmouth, Va.

The explosion occurred after a fire started on the deck of the ship, Shaffer said. He said 19 people remained missing as of 9:45 p.m.

Three helicopters, three Coast Guard boats and a C-130 plane were searching for survivors.

"When the rescue divers got on the scene the fuel tanker was on fire, sinking and there was people in the water," Shaffer said. He said the six people that the Coast Guard recovered were taken to Norfolk Sentara General Hospital were critical.

Pardini said those rescued from the tanker, which had been headed from New York to Houston, were taken to hospitals in Maryland and Virginia.

Robert Wocubik, a patient care supervisor at Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, Md., near Ocean City, said one man "involved in the accident" died at the hospital, and that two rescue divers were treated there for minor injuries.

Wocubik declined to provide specifics but added, "We are prepared to take more injured."