Disabled freighter drifts across Detroit River

All 16 crew members safely disembarked a 641-foot lake freighter whose engine room was disabled by a fire on Sunday and drifted across the river from Detroit to Windsor.

There were no injuries and the fire was contained within the engine room, thanks to fire-suppression systems working properly, said Windsor Port Authority president and CEO Steve Salmons. He said the fire had the potential to be much more serious due to what the ship was carrying — canola seed, which has a high oil content.

“When there’s a fire on board and high oil content in the seed, it’s a bad mix,” he said Monday. Had the fire spread outside the engine room, “it would have been a much more serious issue.”

The U.S. Coast Guard received notice on Sunday at about 2 p.m. that the Canadian vessel Tecumseh had an engine-room fire. It was located near Zug Island in Detroit.

Because the fire was in the engine room, the Tecumseh lost power and eventually drifted across the river to the Windsor side.

A tugboat was used to bring the boat to the Windsor shore, where it was docked at the Morterm terminal. Crew members were disembarked and evaluated by paramedics, the coast guard said in a news release. No one was injured.

A privately contracted firefighting crew — hired by the ship’s owner, Lower Lakes Towing — boarded and extinguished the fire overnight Sunday. Salmons said firefighting on a ship like this is a specialized skill involving extinguishing a fire in a very confined space. The dozen or so firefighters came all the way from Texas, he said.

The coast guard said there was no report of pollution from the fire, and ship traffic on the waterway wasn’t affected. It said it worked through the night with the Canadian Coast Guard and the Windsor Harbour Master to co-ordinate response efforts and provide support.

The cause had not been determined on Monday. Salmons said the freighter still needs to be inspected for seaworthiness.