Workers at the terminal were loading grain onto the Marshall Islands-based Aruna Ece when the cargo belt chute caught fire just after 2 a.m. Sunday, U.S. Coast Guard officials said.
Crews at the terminal were trying to extinguish the blaze when firefighters arrived, said Rocky Earls, a Longview Fire Department lieutenant. Longview firefighters hauled hose lines from the ground up to the ship loader, where conveyor belts had caught fire more than 100 feet off the ground, Earls said.