knowledge about the numbers. i do that because everybody gets nervous if i make a comment, somehow i knew the number. there s an oil production platform in the gulf that s on fire. does it present any of the same problems of the bp rig? it s, obviously, not under a moratorium. do you know anything more about the accident? well, let me just say here s what i know before we came out here. this is, i m told this is a production platform about 100 miles off the coast. i am told the depth of water is about 340 feet. so this is not a, this is not a deepwater facility. as i understand it, the well was not in active production. i will in some ways reiterate what i think the coast guard has said in a statement that they ve released, and that is that they ve responded to the preliminary reports of a fire
rates have been falling since spring, and this is the lowest 30-year rate since freddie mac started tracking. president obama when he was speaking on tuesday night mainly on iraq, but he talked also about the economy, it s clearly on his mind, and he said, quote, our most urgent task is to restore our economy and put the millions of americans who have lost their jobs back to work. jenna, jon, back to you. jenna: we ll get back to you in the briefing room when robert gibbs steps up to the microphone. but you heard molly, she mentioned that rig explosion. it s off of the coast of louisiana, and it is about 80 miles, apparently, off the shore there off of grand isle, louisiana. this is what we know. the coast guard was just on talking to us about it, says that everyone that was on this rig has been pulled from the water. around 9:30 local heym a helicopter flew over this area and saw smoke and people in the water. that s when the coast guard responded, and it was a full
point, and we re still working to see whether there were actually workers on board or if these were people who were responding to this and got into harm s way. we re not sure yet. but this is a very serious situation, playing out in the gulf of mexico. i ve got the calls into the u.s. coast guard and they re expected to put out a statement hopefully short reform as i get fresh information, i ll bring it to you. jenna: harris, one of the things we re seeing as it s coming in from the coast guard, from petty officer k.c.rannow, talking to the local press. and all of us. jenna: and you as well, saying that the name of this company that the rig is owned by is mariner energy. so mariner energy apparently owns this rig, details are a little bit scarce at this time, as we re trying to work this together. but again, not exactly the news you want to hear. jon: no, not at ul. certainly lots of questions to be answered here. first of all, some of these wells in the gulf are relatively shallow.
newsroom. let s just talk a little about what we actually know at this time. reporter: all right, let s concentrate on the elements that the coast guard is putting together right now. they are responding basically with everything they have. i just got off the phone with them, they say they re working on putting out a statement because they want to make sure they get some things right here. there are reports that some 13 or 14 people were on that rig, so they want to make sure they have all their duck necessary a row when they tell us exactly what they re dealing with here. seven helicopters, two airplanes, four boats, enroute to the site, and when i just got off the phone i was not given any indication that that has changed. it s 80 miles south of vermillion bay along the central louisiana coast. this is an off shore oil rig that has exploded in the gulf of mexico. we re told it is west of the british petroleum oil rig site where the deep water horizon was located. so we don t know h
jon: a fox news alert, and breaking news from the gulf of mexico, where there s another incident, we don t know exactly how to characterize it just yet on an oil rig, about 80 miles south of vermillion bay off grand isle, coast guard commander sherry benita is on the phone with us now. what can you tell us? have your units gotten to the explosion yet? reporter: good morning, jon. yes, they have. we ve launched seven helicopters and 26-wing aircraft from a number of different air stations and we have a number of helicopters on scene now pulling people out of the water. jon onand we understand that everybody has survived the explosion? reporter: it looks like it. right now, we were told that there were 13 people on board the rig, and there are