Tugboat Fire on Lake Ontario – Incident Classed as 'Major Marine Casualty'
USCG & Canadian safety agency begins investigation of tug fire. Chief engineer has now died in hospital. The U.S. Coast Guard and marine safety agencies from Canada have begun their investigations into the fire aboard the towing vessel Patrice McAllister near Prince Edward Point, Ontario. The most severely injured crewmember, the boat’s chief engineer, died in a Toronto hospital. The 105-foot U.S.-flagged vessel was transiting on Lake Ontario from Toledo, Ohio, to a port in New York when the fire broke out in the engine room. Another commercial towboat towed the Patrice McAllister to Clayton, N.Y. As the federal agency responsible for marine safety aboard commercial vessels…
Tugboat Fire on Lake Ontario – Helicopter Medivacs Crewmember
U.S. Coast Guard marine inspectors are monitoring the U.S.-flagged, 105-foot tugboat Patrice McAllister, which caught fire with six people aboard in the Canadian waters of Lake Ontario. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Buffalo received an alert from an emergency position indicating radio beacon registered to the vessel, which provided them with an exact location about seven miles south of Prince Edward Point, Ontario. A U.S. Coast Guard search and rescue crew responded aboard an MH-65 Dolphin rescue helicopter from Air Station Detroit, and Canadian rescue crews launched aboard a C-130 aircraft, Griffin helicopter and the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Cape Hearne, a 47-foot Cape Class motor lifeboat from Kingston, Ontario.
