ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A back-draft explosion caused when crew members opened hatches before a fire suppression system had been activated apparently sank the fish processor Galaxy in 2002 near St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea, the Coast Guard has concluded.
Oxygen reintroduced to a fire burning in the ship's engine room probably caused the explosion and accelerated an engine room fire, the Coast Guard said in a report released Wednesday.
Three men died, including one blown off the ship in the explosion. Two days later, a fourth was swept off a Good Samaritan vessel, the Clipper Express, as it searched for survivors in the icy waters.
The Galaxy was a 180-foot Seattle-based longliner fishing for cod, ''one of the best boats in the fleet'' of head-and-gut processors, said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Chris Woodley, the lead investigator. Built in 1942 as a mine layer for the Navy, the Galaxy carried a crew of 25 and an observer from the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The ship was about 35 miles southwest of St. Paul Island, which is 750 miles west of Anchorage and almost 300 miles off the mainland.
At 4:21 p.m., Oct. 20, 2002, crew members reported a large wave hit the side of the vessel, causing it to roll 40 degrees to port and throw food trays around the galley, where several crew members were eating. A minute later, crew around the ship detected smoke.
The cause of the fire could not be determined but may have started in a generator in the engine room, Woodley said.
As crew members scrambled to find the source, power went out and emergency lights came on.
Chief engineer Raul Vielma reached the engine room and found it full of black smoke. In the wheelhouse, Capt. David Shoemaker backed down on the ship's engines.
Vielma left the engine room but did not close a watertight door to the room. Most crew members were ordered to go to the forward or main deck.
Vielma decided the fire was too large to fight with fire extinguishers. He tried running to the wheelhouse to inform the captain he was going to activate the CO2 system, and was told to do so by Shoemaker after making sure no one was in the engine room.
First mate Jerry Stephens, leading the fire crew, believed the system had been spent. The two others on the crew testified he reached the conclusion because the ship engines no longer appeared to be operating. They also heard a loud ''click'' sound from the engine room. They did not, however, see the strobe light or loud alarm set off when a CO2 system, deadly to anyone in the engine room, is activated.
A back-draft explosion can occur when fire becomes starved of oxygen but fuel gases and smoke remain hot. If oxygen is suddenly reintroduced, such as by opening a door, the gasses can ignite all at once and explode.
With the three firefighters nearly overwhelmed by smoke a floor above the engine room, Stephens ordered a fellow firefighter to open hatches to the outside of the vessel. Surviving firefighters said the purpose was not to ventilate the space but to get air for the fire team and provide a possible evacuation route.
They hung their upper bodies out of the hatch and called to the crew on deck for lines to be lowered so they could get out.
Vielma had his hand on the fire suppression controls, Woodley said, and was seconds away from activating the system when a massive explosion rocked the boat.
Just four minutes had passed since the fire was detected.
All three firefighters standing beside the open hatch were blown 10 feet to 15 feet outward into the Bering Sea.
The explosion threw Vielma against a bulkhead and he lost his flashlight. He was not able to start the CO2 system and, still wearing a breathing apparatus, he escaped by crawling through the work deck, up stairs and to the forward main deck.
Shipmates on the deck 35 feet over the water threw lines to firefighters in the 15-foot to 20-foot seas. After having to first swim away to avoid being hit by the stern, Tory DeNuccio was thrown a line with a buoy and was pulled up by five or six shipmates.
Ryan Newhall was hauled part way up the stern, but when the vessel pitched, was swung into the hull and knocked unconscious. However, his leg was tangled in the line and crew members lowered him into the same gear-setting hatch that he had been blown out of. He testified he had no recollection of how he made his way to the deck.
Stephens was apparently seriously hurt in the explosion. In the water, he got into a life ring and was hauled one-third of the way up. But he could not hang on and fell back into the water.
Vielma, from the deck, ordered rescue swimmer Calvin Paniptchuk of Shaktoolik, Alaska, into the water to help Stephens, who floated behind the disabled, drifting vessel. Paniptchuk was able to lift Stephens' face out of the water. But after 10 to 15 minutes, and failed attempts to pull them onto the vessel, Paniptchuk lost his grasp on Stephens and was pulled on board to save his own life. Stephens' body was never found.
Two lives were lost as the crew abandoned ship.
Jose R. Rodas of Pasco, Wash., was pulled from the water but could not be revived. Cook George F. Karn of Renton, Wash., also was lost. Karn's remains were recovered in June 2003 on Tanaga Island, one of the Aleutian Islands.
Two days later, Daniel Schmiedt of Arlington, Wash., was swept off a Good Samaritan vessel, the Clipper Express. He was wearing neither a survival suit nor a life jacket, only rain gear.
Relatives of Karn said they would like to see further steps to ensure safety, including homing beacons on survival suits such as the one Karn wore when he abandoned ship.
''We would like to see the survival suits have a beeper on them ... That certainly would have saved George's life and that would have saved days and days of searching,'' said Karn's sister, Trish Karn of Auburn, Wash.
Karn's brother Jim Alstadt, also of Auburn, said the Coast Guard should require better fire detection and suppression systems on commercial fishing ships. He said ships such as the Galaxy have less comprehensive fire protection than some office buildings.
''On dry land, you've got somewhere to go. In a boat, you have nowhere to go,'' he said.
Associated Press writer Curt Woodward in Seattle contributed to this report.
On the Net:
Coast Guard District 17, Alaska: www.uscg.mil/d17
Coast Guard District 13, Seattle: www.uscg.mil/d13
