The fire that destroyed the commercial fishing vessel Kodiak Enterprise while docked in Tacoma, Wash., in April 2023 likely started from an unknown electrical source inside the ship’s dry stores room, federal investigators determined.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) also found that an inadequate fire detection and notification system failed to alert shoreside contacts, contributing to the severity of the damage and risk for four onboard crewmembers who were asleep on the ship.
The fire was discovered on Kodiak Enterprise, a 252-foot-long, steel-hulled fishing vessel docked at the Trident Seafoods facility at about 0300 on April 8, 2023. The fire burned for about six days and the ship valued at $56.6 million was a total loss. Nobody was hurt and no pollution was reported.
Kodiak Enterprise was originally built in 1977 as a tug supply vessel servicing the offshore drilling industry in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the NTSB report. Arctic Alaska Fishing Corp. acquired it in 1989 and converted it to a stern trawler for the Alaskan commercial fishing industry. Trident Seafoods bought it in 1999 and operated it as a commercial fishing vessel.
According to the NTSB, Kodiak Enterprise was docked at the Trident Seafoods facility in March 2023 for a scheduled overhaul, which included replacing hull and bulkhead sections and maintaining engines and other equipment. The vessel was connected to shore power. Four crewmembers responsible for maintenance of the engine department were living on board at the time: the chief engineer, assistant chief engineer, an electrician and a wiper.
On April 7, 2023, once repair work was completed for the day, contractors secured the equipment and left the ship. The chief engineer and assistant engineer told investigators they did not notice any signs of smoke or fire before turning in around 2200. The electrician who departed the vessel after 0200 told investigators, “Everything was quiet and just normal.”
Around 0300 on April 8, a deck hand on American Constellation, a passenger vessel docked some 200 yards away, saw smoke rising from Kodiak Enterprise’s bow and smelled burning wood. Security camera footage picked up light smoke coming from the ship a few moments later. A deck hand at the facility informed a security guard, who called 911 and contacted Trident Seafoods’ director of marine engineering and its chief engineer, who evacuated the personnel on board the vessel.
Tacoma Fire Department crews arrived at 0327 and placed a thermal imaging camera inside the galley to help extinguish the fire in that space. The fire soon reignited, however, primarily on the starboard side of the bulkhead separating the galley from the dry stores room, which contained a significant amount of combustible material.
Shortly before 0900, firefighters working with salvage and marine firefighting company Resolve Marine moved response efforts to the ship’s exterior to prevent flames from spreading to the pier. The next day, the city fire department coordinated with the U.S. Coast Guard, Resolve Marine, Trident Seafoods, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington State Department of Ecology to extinguish the fire and remove fuel, oil and freon to minimize environmental damage.
On April 14, nearly a week later, authorities declared the fire was extinguished.
NTSB investigators examined potential sources for the fire, ruling out hot work on deck or another equipment electrical failures. The agency determined it was likely “caused by an unknown electrical failure within the dry stores room.”
The agency also found the fire detection and notification system did not have an audible alarm to sound throughout the vessel. It was designed to sound on fire alarm panels on the bridge, engine room, watermaker room and refrigeration room — but these areas were not crewed while the vessel was docked.
The system was set to port mode and programmed to send an alarm text or email notification to the facility security guard and the director of marine engineering but not to any crewmembers living on board the vessel. Both the security guard and Trident’s director of marine engineering told NTSB investigators they did not receive notification the night of the fire. The director of marine engineering reported receiving a false fire alarm a few weeks earlier while hot work was being performed on deck.
NTSB investigators concluded crewmembers on board would not have been notified about the fire even if the fire detection and notification system had operated as intended because they were not included in the system’s contacts.
The agency advised vessel operators to test the fire system on a set schedule to ensure it notifies alert recipients. Additionally, after vessels undergo hot work or other repairs that can cause false alarms, crewmembers should check the fire detection and notification system to ensure it is working correctly. And lastly, the NTSB recommended crewmembers living on board a vessel while it is in port be added to the system’s designated contact list so they are automatically notified in case of fire or other emergency.
Seattle-based Trident Seafoods, the largest seafood company in the U.S., did not respond to requests for comment on the NTSB findings.