Dangerous Chemicals Spilled in Baltimore Bridge Accident

On Wednesday, Jennifer Homendy, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), reported that the cargo ship Dali, which collapsed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, was carrying 56 containers of hazardous chemical materials.

RELATED:

U.S: Ship Crashes Into Bridge in Baltimore and Demolishes It

Authorities estimate that there are 764 tons of corrosive and flammable materials, such as lithium-ion batteries, in the containers. Some of the containers were broken by the crash and glitter was found in the river waters.

Currently, the accident area is dangerous due to the amount of debris and bad weather, which makes it impossible for diving teams to verify the condition of the containers that fell into the water.

Maryland State Police Colonel Roland Butler informed that the bodies of two people were recovered in a pickup truck earlier in the day from the bridge collapse site.

The text reads, "Bridge collapse in Baltimore, U.S. Hit by a ship, the Baltimore bridge collapsed. According to information, an 'electrical problem' was the cause of this accident. (Uranium from Niger is still missing)."

Divers found two men, aged 35 and 26, respectively, shortly before 10 a.m. local time. Operations have now been reclassified from search and recovery to "salvage recovery efforts."

The 2.6-km-long Francis Scott Key Bridge, a major bridge that held Interstate 695, collapsed at about 1:30 a.m. early Tuesday morning after being hit by a Singapore-flagged large container ship, which experienced a power failure before the collision.

The six individuals who went missing, all road maintenance workers, were reportedly on the bridge repairing potholes when the collapse occurred. Eight people initially went into the water and two were rescued from the Patapsco River earlier, with one in critical condition.

"Why the folks on that bridge doing that dangerous work in the middle of the night had no direct line to emergency dispatch, when they are clearly working in a potentially hazardous environment and these massive mega ships are passing beneath their feet?" Maximillian Alvarez, editor-in-chief of the Baltimore-based news outlet The Real News, said in an interview with Democracy Now!

In a statement, Baltimore-headquartered immigration services non-profit Global Refuge said disasters like this one disproportionately affect the immigrant community of the city, as they frequently work in challenging and hazardous occupations.

"Bridges can be rebuilt, but the damage inflicted on these families can never fully be repaired," the organization's president and CEO Krish O'Mara Vignarajah said.