Engine room blaze aboard HMCS Protecteur raged for 11 hours, as vessel drifted

VICTORIA – New details are emerging about an engine room blaze that left a Canadian navy supply ship adrift in the Pacific Ocean, 700 kilometres northeast of Hawaii.

The commanding officer of HMCS Protecteur says the Feb. 27 fire raged for 11 hours.

Commander Jules Elbourne says Protecteur was dead in the water and without power for two days and needed help from three U.S. vessels over the next week as it was towed back to Pearl Harbor.

Elbourne says as flames tore through the engine room crew members had to fight the fire in the dark because power had already been knocked out.

Three hundred crew members and nearly two dozen civilians were aboard, but the visitors were transferred to another ship that responded to the emergency and Elbourne says they and about 100 crew members have now returned to CFB Esquimalt.

There’s still no firm date for when the aging supply ship will be towed back to its home port on Vancouver Island, but Elbourne believes it could be late April or May. (CFAX)