We want to express our sincere appreciation to the Tacoma Fire Department, the US Coast Guard, Washington Department of Ecology and all of the agencies and individuals involved in the response to the Kodiak Enterprise vessel fire this week. We are extremely thankful that no one was critically injured and relieved to hear that the fire should be declared fully extinguished soon. Additional thanks to the Department of Ecology, the Environmental Protection Agency and their contractor CTEH, for continuously monitoring air quality at the incident site and in nearby neighborhoods.

The Port is committed to proactively addressing the environmental impacts of this incident that are under our control. We are concerned about the impacts to the Puyallup Tribe’s fisheries operations and will offer assistance where we can. We also acknowledge the impacts this fire had on nearby residents and business and are sorry that residents in NE Tacoma, Browns Point and Dash Point neighborhoods had to endure smoke and reduced air quality over the course of the fire. We have heard that not every resident received mobile text emergency system alerts and we encourage everyone to sign up to receive City of Tacoma CodeRED and Pierce County Alert emergency notifications.

Unfortunately, this firefighting response was further complicated by the presence of freon and diesel onboard the vessel. The Port’s Environment and Engineering Departments will conduct extensive assessments of the waterway and dock where the vessel is moored as soon as the site is cleared by Tacoma Fire. We are committed to taking whatever measures we can to ensure the health of the waterway. The Port has invested millions of dollars in cleaning up pollution and improving habitat in the Hylebos Waterway, and these investments must be protected.

Trident Seafoods, the owner of the vessel, leases the vessel’s dock space from the Port. Trident Seafoods is the responsible party for this incident, including incident response costs. A claims process has been established for those who may have been financially impacted by the incident. The claims administrator contact number is (206) 378-6090. We are waiting to hear the results of the fire investigation and how Trident Seafoods intends to prevent similar fires from occurring in the future.