NEW ORLEANS, La. (AP) - A mile-long oil sheen spread Thursday
from an offshore petroleum platform burning in the Gulf of Mexico
off Lousiana, west of the site of BP's massive spill.
 

Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Coklough says the sheen, about
100 feet wide, was spotted near the platform owned by Houston-based
Mariner Energy Incorporated.
 

He says Mariner had deployed three firefighting vessels to the
site and one already was in place fighting the blaze.
 

The Coast Guard says no one was killed in the explosion and
fire, which was reported by a commercial helicopter flying over the
site around 9 a.m. CDT.

All 13 people aboard the rig were rescued
as they floated in the nearby water in survival outfits called
gumby suits.
 

The platform is in about 340 feet of water and about 100 miles
south of Vermilion Bay on the central Louisiana coast.