The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has published the results into an investigation into the fire and sinking of fishing vessel Elite Navigator.
What happened?
On 08 July 2024, the Elite Navigator, with the master and 6 crew members on board, departed Valleyfield, Newfoundland and Labrador, to fish turbot. By 17 July, the vessel had caught its quota. At approximately 1830,1 the master used a satellite messenger to notify the owner that they were on the way to port to land their catch and that their estimated arrival time was 1430 on 18 July. At approximately 1930, an alarm sounded in the wheelhouse. The master checked the alarm panel and determined that it was from a smoke detector in the engine room. The master looked at the video camera that monitored the engine room, but there was no smoke visible. The master then went to one of the engine room access hatches in the deckhouse and proceeded partway down a ladder into the engine room to check for smoke. Light smoke was now visible.
Shortly after, a crew member in the deckhouse yelled that there was a fire in the exhaust trunking Another crew member grabbed a dry powder fire extinguisher and tried to extinguish the fire through the interior doorway to the exhaust trunking. Meanwhile, the master returned to the wheelhouse and shut down the main engine. The master and one of the crew members then went outside on the main deck and pried the exhaust trunking vent off the back of the deckhouse to get access to the other side of the exhaust trunking.
From here, they continued to try to fight the fire with another extinguisher. Attempts to fight the fire with the extinguishers were not successful, and the master told the crew to prepare to abandon ship. All seven crewmembers managed to abandon ship and board one of the ships life rafts.
On 19 July, the Canadian Coast Guard rescued everyone and all seven survived with only minor injuries.
What caused the fire?
The Elite Navigator was not recovered, so it was not possible to determine the exact cause of the fire. The fire was first identified in the exhaust trunking, which contained piping for the main engine and generator exhaust.
Carbon dioxide fixed fire suppression systems on fishing vessels The Elite Navigators engine room was fitted with a carbon dioxide fixed fire suppression system (CO2 system). Any openings to the engine room space must be sealed before the CO2 is released. Because fires can grow rapidly, it is important these openings can be sealed quickly. In this incident, the CO2 system was not used because the fire was in the exhaust trunking and it was not clear to the crew whether the system would be able to extinguish a fire in that location.
The investigation identified the vents on the deckhouse top were not fitted with covers or shutters. This meant that there was no way to quickly seal the engine room for the release of CO2. The vessel did have removeable shutters that could be installed to close the vents; however, locating and installing these shutters could take time that may not be available in an emergency.
The CO2 system on the Elite Navigator had been fitted on the vessel voluntarily; it was not required by regulation. Many other fishing vessels under 24m like the Elite Navigator that are similarly equipped with voluntarily fitted systems. Because Transport Canada does not require these systems on small fishing vessels, there are no specific regulations covering them.
While the Fishing Vessel Safety Regulations do broadly require machinery and equipment to be maintained in a safe operating condition, the regulations do not provide any specifics about CO2 systems. When TC inspectors board fishing vessels to do inspections, they therefore have no procedure with which to verify CO2 systems for compliance.
Read the investigation report in full: TSBCanada-M24A0269-ENG.pdf
