Boiler fire on vessel at Port of Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A ship docked at the Port of Alaska experienced a boiler fire on Friday night, creating a loud boom and brief billowing smoke.

According to a press release, the oil tanker Atlantic Lily was offloading Jet A-1 fuel at the port when the blast occurred at 10:08 p.m. on Friday.

Port of Alaska Facility Security Officer and Director of Business Continuity and External Affairs Jim Jager said that fuel offloading operations were immediately suspended and the crew responded to the fire, according to Jager. Fueling operations at a nearby terminal were briefly shut down as well.

Jager said that no injuries had been reported and that the Anchorage Fire Department and U.S. Coast Guard responded, though the crew was able to put out the fire prior to AFD’s arrival.

“U.S. Coast Guard officials are onboard Atlantic Lily and monitoring the situation. Fuel off-loading resumed and technicians are making repairs,” the release said. “The boiler will not be restarted until after fuel off-loading is complete.”

The release said that the boiler is expected to be restarted Sunday morning and that the Atlantic Lily is scheduled to offload approximately 300,000 barrels of fuel intended for use at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

Jager said that there had been no delay of any ships heading in or out of the port. According to the press release, officials with the Atlantic Lily hope to complete the repairs and get approval from the Coast Guard to leave late Sunday morning or early in the afternoon.

Anchorage Fire Department Assistant Chief Alex Boyd said AFD received a separate report of an explosion at the port at 8:21 a.m. Saturday morning.

“This morning, when they believe they had a repair there was a second incident down in the port when they tried to relight the unit and had a second similar event in which there was unburned fuel within the stack that was burning through the stack which appeared to have a lot of fire in the stack,” Boyd said. “After the event this morning, it is determined that there is no threat to the port or the infrastructure in the area, and that Port of Alaska representatives as well as the U.S. Coast Guard, are working with the vessel’s agent to work through the process of getting them back to sea.”

The release said that the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is tracking the situation.

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