The news report states that crew of vessel Kemo Sabay have been rescued before the vessel caught fire. They would have had to abandon ship into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Deckhand Tyler Westlund expressed that they were pretty much hanging onto the back of the boat, trying to stay low because it was hotter than hell. Skipper Dorsey Moody, 44, and deckhands Corey Meehan, 29, and Westlund, 18, were hauling in their last tow of the day aboard the Kemo Sabay – a 56-foot commercial fishing boat owned by Scott Kimmel of New Day Fisheries in Port Townsend – just before 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 29, roughly 2 miles northwest of Protection Island.
It is told that the vessel was beam trawling with an estimated 8,000 pounds of pink shrimp already aboard. Westlund also said that a 2009 Port Townsend High School graduate, the boat was listing to port when a few big waves smacked the vessel from starboard and toppled a 40-gallon propane tank in the galley. Westlund quickly climbed on deck and saw Meehan holding his face as 20-foot flames shot up. Moody came down from upstairs with a fire extinguisher that “didn’t even affect the fire at all,” Westlund said.
Meehan called 911 from a cell phone and told dispatchers to contact the U.S. Coast Guard. Westlund states that the men made it to the boat’s stern, unable to reach life jackets and survival suits in the burning cabin. The gas cans on the deck, a second propane tank in the galley, and a generator exploded.
The ship was fully engulfed, but the fishermen saw arms waving and pulled alongside to rescue the Kemo Sabay’s crew. An eye witness told that they were getting burned at that point. The canvas on my boat got burnt. The shirt and watch got burnt. It was extremely hot. The crew got on board, and the six men immediately put 100 yards between them and the burning vessel.
