Boat destroyed in Whittier dock fire removed from harbor as officials restore limited fuel service

A boat that caught fire and sank in Whittier’s harbor Tuesday after flames broke out at a fuel dock was recovered Wednesday, a city official said, as efforts to restore service at the harbor’s only fueling platform continue.

Emergency responders were called to the Whittier Harbor around noon Tuesday when a fuel dock operated by Shoreside Petroleum went up in flames, along with a vessel that was pulled up to the dock. Two people were flown from the scene by LifeMed helicopters with injuries, and the city’s only fuel dock was shut down due to significant damage.

Whittier Harbormaster David Borg said a Shoreside employee hit an emergency stop button as they evacuated the dock, and later ran back down the gangway to make sure valves at the bottom were secure so no fuel would be released.

Dillon Cooper, the terminal manager for Shoreside, said Wednesday that the company had reopened a fueling station that’s on land at the harbor. Boaters can pull up to that station just as they would a normal gas station and fill their vessels with gasoline or diesel if their boats are on a trailer, he said.

For boats that can’t be put on a trailer, Cooper said the company has implemented an alternative plan to provide both gas and diesel on the fuel dock.

Borg said Shoreside has a truck parked at the top of the gangway with hoses running down to the dock. The company was able to reopen a portion of the dock that’s not damaged, on both the east and west side, in order to provide fuel to boats in the water.

The vessel that was involved in the fire and sank near the dock was removed from the water Wednesday and is in storage, Borg said. That should help, as it posed a navigational hazard for other boats, he said, as well as a pollution hazard.

Initially, there were concerns about what the temporary loss of the fuel dock would mean for Whittier’s commercial fishing fleet. Borg said that with Shoreside providing fuel through the hoses, it will take more time, but vessels should be able to get the fuel they need.

“It’ll slow things down,” he said of the workaround.

Deana Irish, fleet coordinator for Whittier Seafood LLC, said the fire affected the processing company’s operations in terms of how it gets fuel to commercial fishing vessels. Normally, gillnetters and seiners fill up in town and then use tenders to top off while out on the water, she said.

The company already fuels larger tenders from a fuel truck, but smaller tenders that would normally use the harbor’s fuel dock were unable to after the fire. Irish said Whittier Seafood had to put limits on the amount of fuel given to commercial vessels from the tenders out on the water.

“It’s being mitigated very quickly,” she said of the disruption.

Borg said most of Whittier’s commercial fleet is still out and that Shoreside hopes to have the fuel dock repaired and operational by Friday or Saturday, which would be in time to meet incoming fishing vessels. The company has spare fuel pumps being brought down from Seward, he said.

Borg thanked the community for being patient with the temporary inconvenience, and said Shoreside has made a “herculean effort” to get fuel set up at the dock again.

The State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fire, according to Alaska Department of Public Safety spokesman Tim DeSpain. He said in an email that there were no other details to release at this time.