Forward from AOL News:

Stuck Cargo Ship To Be Burned

..c The Associated Press

By JEFF BARNARD

COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) -- Faced with an approaching storm that threatened to
break up a stuck cargo ship, authorities decided today that setting the ship
and its fuel on fire was the only way to save beaches from a spill of nearly
400,000 gallons of oil.

The decision to burn the ship was made by a unified command of Coast Guard,
state and federal authorities after it became clear that they could not remove
the 639-foot New Carissa intact -- already leaking fuel that has fouled
several miles of beaches -- before the a series of storms hit this afternoon.

The ship, owned by a Japanese company, registered in Panama and staffed with a
Filipino crew of 23, ran aground Thursday morning just 450 feet offshore as it
waited to come into port to pick up a load of wood chips. Its crew was removed
by the Coast Guard on Friday.

The discovery that some of the ship's fuel tanks were leaking changed the
Coast Guard's priority Monday from protecting the ship to protecting miles of
environmentally sensitive beaches. The ship is aground in an area known as the
Leberti Hole, considered a prime crab-fishing area.

Authorities had been preparing to try to pull the ship free, which would have
enabled it to be towed in and repaired, until the approaching storm changed
their plans. Now, the ship will be a total loss.

``We are significantly concerned the ship will not stay together,'' Coast
Guard Capt. Mike Hall said today. ``We're between a rock and a hard spot. If
we don't do something now we would have to stand before you and tell you why
we let 400,000 gallons of oil spill on our beaches.''

Navy explosives experts flew in today and were preparing the ship for burning.
Plans call for removing huge cargo hatches on the deck and using small shaped
charges to crack open the fuel tanks, allowing the fuel to burn more freely.
The fire will be ignited with 5-gallon buckets of gasoline and incendiary
grenades that reach temperatures of 1,800 degrees.

Authorities said this kind of burning of the heavy, tarlike bunker fuel would
a controlled burn, not an explosion, and less risky to the environment than
pumping the fuel off the ship. The burn could take a couple of days.

``The goal is to keep the fuel within the skin of the ship,'' Hall said. ``We
think the storm will help us as it feeds the oxygen.''

Already, three of the ship's five tanks, containing 140,000 gallons, have
ruptured, streaking oil along six miles of beaches. Several birds have been
found coated with fuel in the area, which is near the habitat of the Western
snowy plover, a threatened species of shore bird.

About 200 people have been mobilized to clean up the gooey residue. Workers in
yellow slickers and orange hardhats used rakes, shovels and absorbent material
known as pompoms to gather up the oil and put it in clear plastic bags for
disposal. Front loaders gathered up oily driftwood.