No one injured in Northrop incident

PASCAGOULA, Miss. (WALA) - An explosion shook the Northrop Grumman shipyard in Pascagoula Thursday morning leading to a fire. The blast and fire sent thousands of workers home early but did not injure anyone.

It wasn't business as usual along the Pascagoula River Thursday morning. Around 7:30 a.m. there was a jarring difference at the Northrop Grumman shipyard.

"I'm inside the ship in the passage way and I thought someone dropped something on the boat," recalled Curlie Bivins, a 15-year employee. "It was just like whoomp-whoomp! It was a tremendous blast!"

Officials say a fire broke out near the amphibious ships, LPD 22 and LPD 24, but emergency crews quickly put out the fire. Around 2,000 workers were sent home early. Crews are still investigating how the fire broke out.

Bivens said he was about 50 yards away from the fire, which he believes was caused by a gas line explosion.

"The transformer sunk and exploded. That caused the acetylene maniford to rupture and explode," said Bivins.

Robert Reed was on LDP 24 when the incident occurred.

"I was in the middle of the ship, about third deck. I thought they dropped something on the flight deck, but it was an explosion. It wasn't on the boat itself so the boat is fine. No structural damage as far as I know to the boat," said Reed.

No serious injuries were reported in the fire.

The two ships near the fire are amphibious vessels. They're generally used to help transport troops by sea.

For future work schedule updates, employees on these ships should call the company's emergency phone line at 1-800-995-4318, press 7 for Gulf Coast and then press 1 for Pascagoula.