Port Townsend, February 28th. From the Editors Notebook, an update on our article: “Boxcars go to Sea.” Friday night, the “M/V Corbin Foss” suffered an electrical fire, lighting up the Harbor Island area of Elliott Bay in Seattle, Washington.
As a testament to how responsive a blog can be, here is the transcript as it occurred last night from the “West Seattle Blog:”
Update: Fire aboard tugboat Corbin Foss off Harbor Island February 27, 2009 at 7:23 pm | In WS breaking news, West Seattle fires, West Seattle news | 7 Comments
ORIGINAL 7:23 PM REPORT: If you’re on the east side of West Seattle and have heard a lot of sirens - there’s a big “ship fire, 50′, on shore/pier” call on Harbor Island, 1700 block of 13th SW (map). Apparently at or near Todd Shipyard. Whatever’s on fire, it was attached to a barge, according to scanner traffic. More as we get it.
7:48 PM UPDATE: We’re along Harbor Ave to see if we can get a vantage point. Can still see smoke rising from the Todd vicinity, but it’s on the other side of the docks that are visible from here. Monitoring the scanner as well, and it’s clear that many firefighters are being used in what is still an intense firefight. No official word that we’ve gotten yet on exactly what (or what kind of) boat caught fire.
8:01 PM UPDATE: The fire’s just been reported under control; also from the scanner, one person who was on the boat is undergoing medical evaluation. Can’t see smoke any more from this side of the water (we’re now looking from Seacrest).
8:14 PM UPDATE: Just got the first official update from Seattle Fire Department spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen: The fire is aboard a 120-foot tugboat, and one person does have a “minor injury.” This is officially a “two-alarm fire”; no word yet on how it started.
9:25 PM UPDATE: Vander Houwen says the fire is now out. She says the tug is the Corbin Foss. She says 75 firefighters have been working at the scene, as well as the fire investigators who are waiting to be able to get onto the tug to figure out how the fire started.”
Be sure to read the other entries in this series:
Boxcars Go to Sea Oct 6, 2007
Boxcars Go to Sea - CN "AquaTrain" - Mar 20, 2008
Boxcars Go to Sea - Alaska Steamship - May 26, 2008
Boxcars Go to Sea - Vancouver Island - Nov 8, 2008
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Boxcars Go to Sea - "M/V Corbin Foss" Burns!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 Comments - Click here:
Thanks for the mention. Despite our name (which is legacy), we're not a "blog," we're a commercial, journalist-run news site, and inexplicably last night we were alone in publishing updates on this fire for quite some time ... other news organizations were there but perhaps their desks were unmanned for a while.
Anyway, we'll check back to see if you have followup. A friend of ours who works in the maritime industry mentioned having worked on the Corbin Foss's interior and said some more intensive work was, in the works.
Uhmmmm. As a former news director, take my word for it, when they are "manned" they are still "unmanned." However, my late Dad worked for Foss (pre - Dillingham SaltChuck Resources days) and I have a great contact there. But will have to wait 'till the office opens next week!
Post a Comment
"Comment" is for sharing information related to this article. "Anonymous" comments are not published.