BP: Ship fire halts oil capture in Gulf

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A bolt of lightning struck the ship capturing oil from a blown-out BP well in the Gulf of Mexico on today, igniting a fire that halted containment efforts in another setback for the embattled company in its nearly two-month struggle to stop the spill, the company said.

The fire was quickly extinguished and no one was injured. BP said it hopes to resume containing oil from the well sometime later today.

The fire occurred on the Discoverer Enterprise, where engineers are siphoning about 630,000 gallons of oil a day through a cap on top of the well.

"At the moment, there's no capture, no containment going on, but we'll start up the Enterprise when it's safe to do so," BP spokesman Robert Wine said.

The fire happened as President Barack Obama was in Florida as part of a two-day visit to the stricken Gulf Coast.