Fire breaks out on oil platform off US coast, no injuries

 A fire broke out on an oil platform off the coast of the U.S. state of Louisiana early Thursday morning and four workers were rescued by life boat.

The fire, which occurred about 2:30 a.m. local time (0830 GMT) on Thursday some 128 km south of Grand Isle, was extinguished nearly four hours later. There were no injuries and no sign of pollution, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

Crew members aboard the Mary Wyatt Milano, a supply vessel, and three other vessels battled the fire. An HC-144 Ocean Sentry airplane from Mobile, a city in the U.S. state of Alabama, also joined the battle.

Renaissance Offshore LLC, a Houston-based company which owns the platform, has suspended oil production on the platform and on a second platform the company owns.

A total of 17 oil wells associated with the company's two platforms were also "shut in" before the workers were evacuated from the platform.

A spokesman for the company said no oil is leaking into the water from either the platform or the wells.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

In April 2010, an oil rig owned and operated by Transocean and leased by oil company BP, exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and spilling millions of gallons of oil into the gulf.

source: Xinhua