Fishing Vessel Rescued After Engine Fire

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A fishing vessel adrift at sea after its engine room caught fire was being towed back to harbor Wednesday by a Coast Guard cutter, officials said.

The fire on the Stellar Sea was extinguished Tuesday night, but it left the 316-foot processing boat without power or propulsion about 90 miles north of Dutch Harbor, an Aleutian Island port 800 miles southwest of Anchorage. Authorities said 142 people were on board.

The Coast Guard dispatched the cutter Mellon to assist the vessel. The cutter took the Stellar Sea under tow until a commercial tug boat could finish the job, said Chief Petty Officer Barry Lane.

The first civilian tug dispatched from Dutch Harbor had a problem with its propulsion system and turned back, Lane said. The Mellon will continue towing the processor until a second tug arrives, Lane said.

With relatively calm 7-foot seas, weather was not a problem, Lane said.

“There’s no foreseeable danger to any of the crew members at this time,” he said.

The boat was headed from Seattle to tiny St. Paul Island, 275 miles north of the Aleutian chain.

The cause of the fire has not been determined.