Minor miracle for fishermen after thousands of crab pots lost in Ilwaco fire

ILWACO, Wash. — Dozens of crab fishermen are now in recovery mode in southwest Washington near the Oregon coast after a massive fire at the Ilwaco Landing seafood facility on Monday.

But we’re also hearing stories of hope that could preserve the season for many of the crabbers that were impacted.

The fire brought a level of devastation to some crab fishermen who lost gear and equipment with only days to go before the crab season begins.

Dale Beasely is president of the Columbia River Crab Fisherman’s Association and spoke to KIRO 7 on Wednesday. He said an act of support is helping some of the fisherman who lost their gear to the fire. Within in 24 hours, a minor miracle occurred after thousands of crab pots were lost to the flames.

“There’s a lot of fishermen that have 100 pots sitting on the dock that have been more than generous to allow other fishermen to borrow them for the season,” he said. “They’ve got enough gear coming to get the boats in the ocean. It’s just a miracle that this was put together so quickly,” said Beasely.

Local news outlet, The Chinook Observer, described the fire as the most intense industrial fire in a generation for Pacific County.

The remote nature of the area where the fire erupted limited the water supply firefighters could use.

The job for Ilwaco firefighters was even tougher due to the crab pots surrounding the building. A rough estimate by the fire department put the number at 8,500 pots around the building.

Beasely guessed that roughly 4,000 crab pots may have been destroyed. Other crab fisherman loaning theirs out is something he didn’t imagine could happen.

“They’re not giving them the pots. They expect to get them back, but they’re loaning them for the season,” he said.

Beasely says commercial crab fishermen could be charged $400 per pot to to buy them new. At that price, the total amount to replace the pots with brand new ones would be $1.6 million.

He also said that crab pots are not insurable, so the cost will come out of crab fishermen’s pockets. He says crab from that facility and the region does find its way to Seattle and many other locales, and while he couldn’t guess at the impact to the market, he did have one suggestion on how the public could help: “They can help by buying a lot of crab!”

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

©2024 Cox Media Group