Washington State Ferry Runs Aground Near Bremerton
On Saturday afternoon, a Washington State ferry ran aground south of Bainbridge Island, just across Puget Sound from Seattle. Nearly 600 passengers were aboard the vessel, and safe disembarkation took more than five hours.
At about 1630 hours Saturday, the ferry Walla Walla went aground in Rich Passage, a narrow and curving waterway on the route from Seattle to Bremerton. No injuries or flooding were reported.
Passengers told local media that the lights flickered and that the ship appeared to lose propulsion before the grounding. The crew alerted everyone on board to the impending casualty and began to prepare them for an emergency scenario.
“They made [an] announcement saying everyone needs to come to the passenger deck, we’ve lost steering [and propulsion] everyone needs to brace for impact, and so we were all sitting down and a little concerned," passenger Matt Holyoak told KOMO News after the casualty.
The smaller ferries Waterman and Commander, provided by Kitsap Transit, diverted to the scene and were able to pull alongside the Walla Walla so that passengers could transfer directly aboard. The last passengers disembarked at about 2200 hours, and they were all delivered safely to Bremerton.
Images courtesy USCG
The Walla Walla was safely refloated at high tide on Saturday night with tug assistance, and she was delivered to Bremerton without further incident. Passengers with cars aboard the Walla Walla were able to retrieve their vehicles at the pier in Bremerton on Sunday morning.
Initial indications suggest that the Walla Walla sustained a generator failure while under way, according to Washington State Ferries. An official investigation into the cause of the casualty is under way. The ferry Issaquah is taking over Walla Walla's route temporarily while the refloated ferry undergoes survey and repair.
Walla Walla is a Jumbo-class WSF ferry built in 1973 and refurbished in 2005. She has a diesel-electric propulsion system, powered by four independent diesel generators.
The ferry has been aground once before: in 1981, Walla Walla ran onto a beach at Wing Point, Bainbridge Island, about three miles northeast of Saturday's grounding.
The last major propulsion casualty affecting a WSF ferry occurred in 2014, when the ferry Tacoma suffered a catastrophic electrical system failure at Bainbridge's Eagle Harbor. The Tacoma was able to drop anchor and avert a grounding.
Fire Subsides Aboard Trawler Kodiak Enterprise
Firefighters have begun the process of knocking down the last remaining pockets of fire aboard the factory trawler Kodiak Enterprise, which caught fire at a pier in Tacoma early Saturday.
The fire burned through most of the vessel by Monday and decreased further in size on Tuesday, according to the unified command managing the response. The blaze has subsided enough that the Tacoma Fire Department green-lighted operations to access the ship's interior and begin extinguishing any remaining hot spots.
Shelter-in-place orders for downwind neighborhoods have been lifted, and air testing suggests that particulate matter is no longer a concern.
In addition, the vessel's freon refrigerant tanks have been inspected and have been found empty. The Kodiak Enterprise was carrying about 19,000 pounds of freon, and the heat of the fire was expected to cause pressure in the tanks to rise. The tanks were fitted with safety release valves, and the responders believe that they slowly vented off the tank contents into the atmosphere, without any health and safety risks.
The vessel still has a pronounced list to port, but dewatering operations are under way to restore full stability. A dive inspection on Tuesday found that the ship is intact below the waterline, dispelling earlier concerns that she might be taking on water. As a precautionary measure, the dive team plugged her water intakes.
Images courtesy USCG
A light sheen was spotted around the vessel Tuesday morning, located within the three layers of boom that responders have deployed to control any potential pollution. The sheen was too thin to recover, according to the Coast Guard, but if any larger release should occur, skimming boats and response crews are standing by.
The Kodiak Enterprise had recently returned from "A" season in the Bering Sea and was undergoing a maintenance period in Tacoma, according to her operator. Only three engineers were aboard the vessel on the night of the fire, and they were evacuated safely. Four firefighters reportedly sustained injuries during an initial attack on the fire.
The blaze aboard Kodiak Enterprise is the second to affect a Trident Seafoods fishing vessel in two years. In February 2021, the Trident fish processor Aleutian Falcon caught fire at a shipyard in Tacoma during maintenance work.
Factory Trawler Burns Out, Takes On Heavy List at Pier in Tacoma
The fire aboard the catcher-processor vessel Kodiak Enterprise has died down, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, but the response is not finished yet. The burned-out vessel is listing heavily to port, and responders are working to figure out where the source of the flooding is coming from.
Firefighting efforts led by the Tacoma Fire Department kept the hull cooled through the three-day fire, and the agency believes that most of the flammable material on board has now burned through - including an onboard acetylene tank that exploded Saturday night (no injuries or additional damage were reported). The ship continues to emit smoke, but by early Monday, the volume had abated enough that a shelter in place order for downwind neighborhoods could be lifted.
Crews from Tacoma Fire continue to use hoses to cool the hull from the pier side and the water side as the fire burns itself out.
Images courtesy USCG
While the fire has subsided, the vessel has taken on a pronounced list to port, "more than we want it to," the response command told local King 5 News. Dewatering operations to correct the list and restore normal stability are under way, along with dive inspections to attempt to find the source of the flooding.
So far, the responders have not spotted a spill or oil sheen in the water. As a precautionary measure, the response command has deployed three layers of containment boom around the Kodiak Enterprise, and skimmers and other spill response assets are staged nearby in case they are needed.
The three crewmembers who were aboard the vessel on the night of the fire were evacuated safely. There were injuries among the first responders, however, according to King 5: four firefighters reportedly sustained injuries during an initial attack on the fire.
The fire aboard Kodiak Enterprise is the second to affect a Trident Seafoods fishing vessel in two years. In February 2021, the Trident fish processor Aleutian Falcon caught fire at a shipyard in Tacoma during maintenance work.
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