Boat fire escape straight out of ‘The Twilight Zone’

JACK STERNHAGEN

March 07, 2008 at 11:13AM AKST

For The Dutch Harbor Fisherman

I just heard a crazy story from a buddy of mine whose commercial fishing boat caught on fire this spring on the southeast side of Kodiak.

The captain and owner was Kirk Van Doran, otherwise known as "Carcass" from his wilder days when that’s what he looked like after a rough night out on the town.

His boat was called the Heather K, but he often referred to as the "Hundred K" because of how much he had invested in it.

He had two deckhands, one of which was Leyland Stafford, otherwise known as "Coach" because of his involvement in coaching kids in sports.

One night, carbon built up in the exhaust stack and set the stack on fire. The fire spread throughout the boat. After fighting it for a while, they realized it was pointless to continue as the fire began to consume the vessel.

Carcass shut down the engine in the engine room but couldn’t get to the wheelhouse to pull the boat out of forward gear because of all the smoke. Instead he concentrated on getting the life raft inflated and deployed in the ocean. Carcass, Coach and another deckhand jumped in the life raft.

They breathed a sigh of relief as they turned on the EPIRB – emergency positioning locator beacon – and waited for the U.S. Coast Guard helicopter to home in on the device and rescue them.

They quickly cut the 100-foot line tethering the life raft to the Hundred K and threw the knife over so it wouldn’t pop the raft. Then they paddled away from the boat as fast as they could to escape the heat and smoke. Soon they were about 100 yards away.

As they floated anxiously in the raft they heard a rumbling in the distance. They watched in awe as the smoking vessel they had just evacuated bore down on them in a blaze of fire and a heavy cloud of toxic smoke.

The fire had burnt through the ignition wires and hotwired the motor while they were in the life raft, and the flaming unmanned boat started chasing them in the life raft as if it was possessed by demons.

They paddled like crazy and it just missed running them over. They cheered and high-fived each other as they watched the floating inferno chug away in a pall of black smoke and roaring flames.

Just as they were getting their breath back from their exertions they heard the growling of the diesel engine coming behind them again. It had gone in a circle and was heading straight for the tiny raft again.

Coach and the other deckhand were paddling in the front of the raft while Carcass sat in the rear in helpless frustration as he watched the two befuddled seadogs paddling in opposing directions.

The two steersmen had had a contentious halibut season on the Hundred K and had often bickered over trivialities.

Now that their lives were in danger they were still arguing.

"This way!" Coach shouted as he paddled on one side of the bow of the raft.

"No ... this way!" the other deckhand screamed as he paddled in the opposite direction.

"Come on guys, get it together!" yelled Carcass as the Hundred K tried to kill them.

Well, the boat narrowly missed them once again and the exhausted crew lay in the raft in dazed confusion as they coughed the nasty smoke out of their tortured lungs.

No sooner had they recovered their wits when they were abruptly brought out of their stupor by the sound of the angry engine coming behind them as the Hundred K bore down on them like a wrathful work of the devil.

This time they paddled in unison and cheered as the boat cleared them by 80 feet or so.

Their congratulations were cut short by a sharp jerk on the life raft as the "fish" caught on the tether and started towing them behind the burning inferno!

A fish is a device hung from a chain off the side of the boat from the stabilizing poles to stop the boat from rolling too much. It is otherwise known as a stabilizer.

The fish had entangled in the tether line and they were being towed 100 feet behind the smoking monstrosity formerly known as the Heather K in a searing blaze of smoke and fire.

Having thrown their knife in the water they had no way to cut through the line and were contemplating a terrible death as they watched the life raft began to melt.

But they were resourceful fishermen, and one of them had the idea of lighting an emergency flare and using the flame to burn through the line.

The flare tactic worked. They shouted and cheered once again as they heard the engine finally give up the ghost. It rumbled and sputtered and finally died.

The crew spent a few worried hours in the raft. Luckily, the Coast Guard homed in one of the deckhands’ personal EPIRB, because the $1,500, brand new one Carcass had just bought didn’t work.

There was a write-up about it in the Kodiak paper but here’s the "rest of the story," as related to me by Carcass yesterday. He said it was just like being in an episode of "The Twilight Zone."

Jack Sternhagen has fished and crabbed the Bering Sea for 22 years. He currently lives in Dutch Harbor.