Spirit of Boston fire: USCG convenes marine casualty investigation
Written by Nick Blenkey
Boston Fire Department tweeted this photo of crews responding to the Spirit of Boston Fire
The Coast Guard has convened a formal marine casualty investigation into a fire that occurred Friday evening aboard the small passenger vessel Spirit of Boston.
Rear Adm. John Mauger, Coast Guard First District Commander, authorized the investigation pursuant to the authority contained in Title 46, United States Code, Section 6301.
Cmdr. Mason Wilcox has been appointed as the lead investigator.
The 1990-built Spirit of Boston is a 153-foot vessel with a capacity of 675 passengers and crew. The vessel caught fire while moored at Commonwealth Pier in Boston. There were no passengers onboard at the time, but the fire caused extensive damage to the ship. The investigation will allow for a full understanding of the events that led up to the fire and provide a way forward to prevent future events.
The Coast Guard has established an e-mail address for the public and interested parties to provide information, ask questions and make comments related to the ongoing investigation. This e-mail will be live by April 1. It will be checked regularly and all correspondence will be acknowledged. The e-mail address is: SpiritOfBoston@uscg.mil
On completion of the investigation, the Coast Guard will issue a report of investigation with collected evidence, established facts and conclusions and recommendations regarding the marine casualty.
The Spirit of Boston is operated by City Experiences, part of Hornblower Group, the same company that operated the Spirit of Norfolk, which caught fire in June last year. The 106 passengers onboard, mostly local elementary school children, were evacuated onto the smaller tour boat Victory Rover, which brought them back to dock with no injuries were reported.
