Seattle Firefighters Respond to Sinking Vessel on Lake Union

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Seattle Firefighters and the Marine Response Team were called to an Eastlake dry dock for a vessel taking on water. A 911 call came into dispatch at 5:06 a.m. on December 21, 2011, describing water coming into a bilge, or compartment near the engine room.

Engine Company 22 arrived to find a 200 foot trawler-processer called the Arica with about 3 feet of water inside. All of the crew members were safe and accounted for by firefighters. The ship's crew used onboard pumps to try and bail out the water. Once the leak was discovered, the dry dock crew cut power to the ship as a precaution. 

The Seattle Fire Department Fast Attack Boat (Engine 1), and the Seattle Police Department Harbor Patrol Boat were on scene to assist in the operation. No fuel or oil leaked from the ship but an oil boom was laid out around the ship as a precaution. All of the water pumped from the ship was sent into sewage treatment lines and not pumped into Lake Union.

Firefighters assisted the crew with the pumping operation and were able to drain more than two feet of the water out of the bilge. No water made its way into the engine compartment. At 6:46 a.m., the scene was turned over to the dry dock company.

Private divers will go under the ship to try and locate the origin of the leak. Marine officials suspect the water is coming up through the sea chest, which is a compartment that allows sea water into the vessel in order to cool the engine or for firefighting purposes.

No one was injured during this emergency response.



Author:Seattle Fire Department Press Release