The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating after more than 200 people aboard the ferry MV Holiday Island had to abandon ship Friday morning due to an engine room fire.
Northumberland Ferries vice president Don Cormier said in a statement Saturday that the fire could not be fully contained.
“The fire has continued overnight and our teams are continuing to assess the situation,” he said. “The fire is still primarily contained to the ship’s engine room and funnels. At this time, smoke can still be seen from the ship’s funnels and engine room vents.”
Members of the Canadian Coast Guard and a tugboat remain on standby to monitor the situation.
After Friday’s firefighting operations were ineffective, crews say they plan to tow the vessel to the dock, where they hope to fully contain the scene.
The ferry left the port of Caribou, NS at 10am, traveling to Wood Islands, PEI
The fire started shortly after 11am
“The alarms went off and I’m very far on the ship, and I’ve never heard them before,” said passenger John Kenny.
“I thought it was a false alarm. They were quite loud. They went on for a couple of minutes before I heard an announcement that there was actually a fire on the ship.”
The ferry had almost completed its journey across the Northumberland Strait when the trouble began.
“You go outside and you see fire above your head. You’re like, ‘OK, is this real? Is this happening? especially when they told us to wear a life jacket,” Chelsey Wilson said.
Kenny says crew members tried to calm the children on board.
“My son was with me, he’s eight, and he was quite scared, because I don’t know what they see on TV, but when it started happening it felt like Titanic on a smaller level,” she said.
According to Northumberland Ferries Limited, which operates the ferry, efforts on board to extinguish the fire were suspended out of “an abundance of caution” for the safety of the ship’s crew and firefighters due to its condition.
“The boundary cooling water. It’s been found in the bilges, it basically resulted in a little bit of listing of the ship, so those activities ceased last night,” Cormier said in an interview with CTV News.
No injuries have been reported.
The ferry operator says the vessel was intentionally run aground outside the entrance to Wood Islands Harbor, where life rafts were deployed.
Wilson says she had to hold on to her daughter “for dear life” as the two slid down the emergency exit.
“I asked if I could go on my lap and they said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ You had to have your legs open to slow down, and I was petrified going down the chute the whole time,” she said.
#RCMPPEI is assisting with an offshore incident near Wood Island Ferry Terminal. The terminal is currently closed. The public is asked to avoid the area to allow first responders to do their job.
— PEI RCMP (@RCMPPEI) July 22, 2022
Six different fire departments, the Coast Guard and the PEI RCMP, along with several emergency crews, responded to the scene.
According to the Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax, 182 passengers immediately disembarked safely, while 18 crew members and seven local firefighters remained on board.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also commented on the fire during his visit to PEI on Friday.
“I want to thank the first responders who responded very quickly and there were local fishermen involved to help people. This was a very, very scary situation for everyone involved, so our thoughts are with them,” Trudeau said.
“We are working to give them the necessary support,” he told reporters. “I just spoke with Prime Minister King, who assured me that I would have full federal cooperation in whatever is needed.”
Today has been a scary day for the passengers and crew of the mv Holiday Island, their families and loved ones.
Full statement👇 pic.twitter.com/0mJeEtEIB8
— Dennis King (@dennyking) July 22, 2022
Prime Minister King said crews from the Canadian Red Cross and other emergency organizations were on the ground helping passengers with anything they might need, including accommodation, supplies and transportation.
“These crews will continue to support passengers and their families in the coming days,” King said in a news release Friday.
He added that Health PEI prepared for the possibility that a large number of patients would need care, even though it wasn’t necessary.
Northumberland Ferries said on Saturday that they are working to send passengers home without the items they had been forced to leave on the ship on Friday.
“Ignorance of the circumstances of both hours and ignorance of the exact condition of the vehicles, if and when they are recovered, that it is best for customers to go home.”
Officials add that they will work to return the vehicles to the passengers if and when they can be recovered.
In a tweet, Northumberland Ferries said all Woods Islands-Caribou services this weekend have been cancelled. Schedule updates can be found online.
Update: Please note that Northumberland Ferries have canceled all sailings on Sunday 24th July 2022. Apologies for any inconvenience.
Please monitor or call our toll-free number at 1-800-565-0201 for the most up-to-date schedule information.
— Northumberland Ferries (@PEIFerries) July 23, 2022
The TSB said information is being gathered to assess during the investigation.
This is a developing story.