MOBILE, Alabama - Explosions and resulting fires on two barges in the Mobile River off the Alabama city's shore injured three people and forced officials to evacuate nearby shipyards and one cruise vessel on Wednesday. 

Mobile Fire Chief Steve Dean said that for safety reasons firefighters were keeping a distance from the barges, which were carrying raw gasoline and had already been the source of multiple explosions.

The barge explosions forced the crew of Carnival Corp's cruise vessel Triumph to evacuate.

"Everybody is just monitoring the situation right now," Dean told reporters.

John David Mercer / AP

Fire burns aboard two fuel barges along the Mobile River after explosions sent three workers to the hospital on Wednesday.

Three people with a team servicing the barges were injured and transported to Mobile's University of South Alabama Medical Center, Mobile Fire and Rescue Department spokesman Steve Huffman said. A hospital spokesman said separately that they were all in critical condition.

Fire officials had initially said the barge explosions involved natural gas.

Huffman had no information on who owns the barges or details of their destination.

The cause of the explosions was unknown, he added.

Carnival Corp's Triumph previously made headlines in February when an engine fire left it and 4,000 passengers adrift in the Gulf of Mexico, until they were towed back to land.

This story was originally published on Thu Apr 25, 2013 12:46 AM EDT

Bill Starling / AP

The Carnival cruise ship Triumph is damaged after the being dislodged from its mooring at BAE shipyard during high winds Wednesday, April 3, 2013 in Mobile, Ala.

The Coast Guard is searching for a worker who was thrown into the water at an Alabama shipyard where high winds also tore the Carnival Triumph from its moorings Wednesday.

The missing employee -- identified as a 64-year-old man by NBC affiliate WPMI -- works for the company that runs the shipyard, not the cruise line, and was in a guard shack that was blown off the dock, officials told The Associated Press. A second man who was tossed into the 40-foot-deep water from the shack was rescued.

The same 70 mph gusts pulled loose the star-crossed Triumph, which was being repaired after a February engine fire that stranded thousands of passengers at sea with backed-up toilets and dwindling food supplies.

The 900-foot vessel drifted from one bank to another and smacked into a cargo ship before it could be secured. None of the 800 workers aboard were hurt, according to Carnival, though there was a 20-foot gash in its hull.

Previous coverage: Carnival Triumph breaks loose from dock

Mobile County Sheriff's Office

Dandre Moore is seen in a booking photo.

A man who was pulled over in an Alabama tunnel told sheriff’s deputies that he was texting with both hands and driving the car with his knees — with a 3-year-old in the car’s back seat, authorities said.

Deputies said they also found $4,500 and prescription drugs in the car after they stopped Dandre Moore in a tunnel in Mobile, Ala., on Tuesday, the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office said.

Deputies said Moore, 19, told them he had been “double texting” since he was 15 years old.

Two women and the 3-year-old were in the back seat. Dartavious Moore, in the front passenger seat, had an ounce of marijuana in his underwear, sheriff’s spokeswoman Lori Myles told the Press-Register newspaper.

When authorities searched the car, they also found several Xanax and a bottle of the prescription painkiller oxycodone, the newspaper reported. The prescription had been filled a week earlier with 720 pills, and there were 386 left, Myles said.

Dandre Moore was charged with illegal possession of the Xanax and possession of a controlled substance. Dartavious Moore was charged with possessing marijuana. Both men live in Philadelphia, Miss., the newspaper said.

The two women were also arrested.

The car was stopped for moving in and out of traffic, Myles told NBC News.

This story was originally published on Thu Apr 4, 2013 8:50 AM EDT