Whittier’s new $80 million cruise ship dock is considered a total loss after a fire Monday that also damaged a tour boat in the Prince William Sound community.
The state fire marshal’s office is investigating how the fire started and reviewing the dock’s building plans to see if it was built to fire code, Department of Public Safety spokesperson Austin McDaniel said.
The cruise ship terminal, built and operated by Hoonah Totem Corporation, welcomed its first vessel in 2024.
“We are certainly taking a look at the entire file just to help illuminate any questions and answers that have come up as a result of the fire,” McDaniel said.
Firefighters reported having to connect to a fire hydrant farther away in the city, because hydrants at the dock were not working.
“There's been lots of conversations about the fire hydrant. However, that's not something that we are looking at or investigating,” McDaniel said.
The fire marshal’s office conducts investigations on fires that destroy key infrastructure or cause expensive damage, McDaniel said.
Huna Totem Corporation had not responded to requests for comment as of Thursday.
There has been a lot of debate on social media about the fire response, said Megan Peters with the Anchorage Fire Department, one of the agencies that assisted in extinguishing the blaze.
“Multiple factors were taken into consideration on scene of how to do the water supply,” Peters said. “One of the things that I think a lot of people don't realize is the dock is a secure facility, and it's surrounded by heavy fencing, providing no access points to the ocean water for fire apparatus.”
While it’s possible to run salt water through a fire pump, Peters said, it’s not the best option for the equipment.
Three tenders made repeated 10-minute loops between the dock and the hydrant to keep the water running until firefighting operations were handed off to relief crews later in the evening, Peters said. They used more than 112,000 gallons of water to put out the fire.
One cruise ship, the Norwegian Jade, safely departed the area during the fire, the Coast Guard said. The fire damaged a tour boat, the Klondike Express.
According to initial reports, the Klondike Express had been on fire, but the Coast Guard have since clarified that the boat was solely damaged by the fire and smoke from the dock.
