Canada

Investigators board the MV Holiday Island to look for the cause of the fire

Transportation Safety Board investigators began their work aboard the MV Holiday Island, a full week after a fire in the ship’s engine room prompted the evacuation of more than 200 people.

Northumberland Ferries Vice President Don Cormier said investigators, who will try to determine what caused the fire on the ferry as it made its regular crossing between Nova Scotia and PEI, entered the vessel Saturday morning.

This follows efforts to remove water from the ship on Friday to ensure it was safe enough for people to board.

“[We] we were able to get to a point where we were able to enter the space to make it safe to enter,” Cormier said.

“We did some cleaning of the deck plates, so essentially the TSB earlier this morning was able to enter the space safely after a marine chemist checked the atmosphere.”

A team consisting of four TSB investigators was deployed to PEI a week ago but was unable to enter the engine room as it was full of water.

Cormier said there was no way of knowing how long the investigation would last, but that investigators would have access to the ship for as long as needed.

“I’m sure that for most of the day, today, the TSB will be gathering the information they need to conduct the important investigation to get to the root cause of what happened here,” Cormier said.

Meanwhile, access to the ship is restricted for everyone else. Cormier said he expects an inspector from an insurance company to come in and assess the vessel for insurance purposes after investigators are done.

Service between Caribou, NS and Wood Islands, PEI, resumed Wednesday after being suspended for five days following the fire. MV Confederation now makes four round trips a day as the only vessel on the route.