BC Ferries fire cancels 8 Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay sailings

BC Ferries cancelled eight sailings on its busy route between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay after a fire broke out on a vessel early Friday morning.

The vessel was pulled from service after a standby generator caught fire, and although no one was injured it is not yet clear when it will be returned to service on the route, according to BC Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall.

The cancelled trips include all trips by the Spirit of Vancouver Island on Friday, including:

• The 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. sailings out of Swartz Bay.
• The 9 a.m., 1 p.m., 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. sailings out of Tsawwassen.

The vessel is one of four scheduled to sail the route , which connects Metro Vancouver with Victoria on Vancouver Island, on Friday, as thousand of travellers hit the road for the Thanksgiving long weekend.

To make up for the cancellation, BC Ferries added the following sailings onthe other vessels on the route.

• 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. out of Swartz Bay.
• 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. out of Tsawwassen.

Due to the reduced capacity on the TsawwassenSwartz Bay route, assured loading tickets (ALTs) will not be honoured on that routeon Friday, said BC Ferries.

BC Ferries has two Spirit Class vessels that were built in the early 1990s in B.C. to sail the Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay route, and can each carry 410 vehicles and 2,100 passengers on four trips a day. They underwent extensive refits in 2005 and 2006.