A Canadian Navy ship seriously damaged by a fire Thursday night while returning to B.C.’s CFB Esquimalt has limited power and is stopped in the Pacific.
The fire broke out around 10:20 p.m. while the 172-metre-long HMCS Protecteur was about 630 kilometres northeast of Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. It was returning to its home port in B.C. after seven weeks of training exercises.
An undisclosed amount of crew suffered minor injuries while trying to contain the flames and are being treated on board. There are 279 crew members, 17 family members and two civilian contractors on the ship.
The Department of National Defence said Friday that the damage to the vessel is being considered serious and a “prolonged event.”
“A full assessment of the situation is being conducted to establish the extent of the damage,” DND said in the release.
The fire happened in a main engineering space in the engineering area. The cause of the fire is still unknown.
The ship left CFB Esquimalt on January 7 with HMSC Regina for exercises with US naval forces.
A US warship, the USS Michael Murphy, has been dispatched to assist.
The HMSC Protecteur, one of Canada’s two supply ships, went into action in 1969.
Last year, the ship was involved in a collision with HMCS Algonquin during towing exercises en route to Hawaii.
