A trip to Prince Edward Island part 3: We narrowly avoid disaster!

The day after we returned safely from PEI, we started hearing about a ferry fire??  We crossed back over to Nova Scotia on Thursday, and the fire happened on Friday.  We made the Monday crossing to PEI on the Holiday Island, and on Friday of the same week, a fire started in the engine room.  It was contained there with no injury or loss of life to the crew, passengers, or cargo (cars).  It was just short of docking at Wood Islands, PEI when the fire started.  All 182 passengers had to don life jackets and exit via the slides.  Cars were stranded on board for up to 2 days before they were able to get them offloaded.  It has created a giant disruption in the travel to/from PEI for the tourist season.  There is another (larger) ferry that will continue to do 4 round trips per day year round, but nearly half of the billets are gone for the season.  The Holiday Island is put in service for the high-demand summer season, but will be out of service for the rest of the year for repairs.

 


There is the Confederation Bridge that connects the western end of PEI to the mainland, it will have a lot more traffic over it for the rest of this year.  It's the "long way round" for most people, but it will still be a vital link for travel.

Sister Johnson and I feel very blessed to have avoided this experience, and our condolences go out to those who were disrupted by it.  Again, with no loss of lives or property (except the ferry) it must be considered an unfortunate inconvenience rather than a disaster.

Here are a few links to the story:

https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/many-cars-trapped-on-burned-ferry-returned-but-some-will-take-longer-1.6001766

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2022/07/24/pei-ferry-tugged-to-berth-as-work-commences-to-ensure-fire-fully-extinguished.html

https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/news/holiday-island-ferry-safe-in-berth-sunday-after-fire-july-22-100756447/

https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/news/shoreside-rescue-182-passengers-evacuated-from-pei-ferry-after-fire-breaks-out-in-engine-room-100756151/

Comments

  1. sherryAugust 7, 2022 at 1:42 PM

    So happy you ran into my friends. Debbie and Steve Cohen.

    ReplyDelete

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