Fire aboard the Trident Seafoods’ Kodiak Enterprise, which has caused extensive damage to the vessel, is under investigation in Tacoma, Washington, where firefighters began responding last Saturday to reports of smoke on the 276-foot catcher processor.
As of Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said the fire had died down, but that efforts continued by the Tacoma Fire Department and others to determine what caused the fire and to find out the course of flooding that was causing the vessel to list heavily to port.
Efforts of the Tacoma Fire Department have kept cool the hull of the burned-out vessel. Coast Guard officials said that most of the flammable material on board was burned through, including an acetylene tank that exploded on the night of the blaze.
The vessel continued to emit smoke, but no injuries were reported to anyone onboard or those fighting the fire, nor were there any reports of a fuel spill or oil sheen in the water. As a precautionary measure, the vessel was surrounded by three layers of containment boom, and responders and equipment were staged and ready to respond if pollution was observed.
The Coast Guard established a safety zone around the incident site and had the Coast Guard Cutter Adelie patrolling the area to enforce the safety zone.
A unified command, consisting of the Tacoma Fire Department, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Washington Department of Ecology, and other agencies was working to locate any remaining hot spots on the vessel.
The Coast Guard said firefighting efforts had resulted in a substantial reduction in the vessel fire with improved smoke conditions, and the authorities had lifted the temporary shelter-in-place order on Monday. Meanwhile the Tacoma Fire Department continued to cool the vessel with continuous application of water to the hull of the vessel. Dive operations were commenced to inspect the hull.
Updates were also being posted on Twitter.
The vessel had recently returned from Alaska and was docked in Tacoma for maintenance, Trident officials said.
Joe Bundrant, chief executive officer of Trident Seafoods, expressed thanks for “the extraordinary effort from everyone giving their time over the Easter weekend to mitigate potential impacts to people and the environment.”
Bundrant said there would be a full investigation in conjunction with participating agencies to determine the cause of the fire. Meanwhile the crew of the Kodiak Enterprise was being deployed to other vessel and shore-based operations, he said.
