A high-end Alaska cruise dock that only just got going is now being described by state officials as a "total loss." The $80 million Glacier Gateway Terminal facility in Whittier burned for more than 13 hours after the fire was reported late Monday morning, with crews struggling in part because of nonfunctioning hydrants, the Anchorage Daily News reports. No one was injured. The blaze destroyed the dock, damaged an empty Phillips Cruises catamaran, and forced the commissioning ceremony for the USS Ted Stevens destroyer to be shifted to Whittier's older Princess Cruises terminal.
Whittier is around 60 miles southeast of Anchorage. The initial response to the fire was joined by the Anchorage Fire Department, Girdwood Fire and Rescue, and other emergency services in the area. The AFD said there were no working hydrants near the dock and it used a fire engine and three tenders to move 112,000 gallons of water from a hydrant in the town, KTUU reports. The dock is a "secure facility surrounded by fencing, providing no access points to the ocean water for fire apparatus," the department said on Facebook.
- The new facility, backed by Huna Totem Corp. and Norwegian Cruise Line, had just completed its first full season. Huna Totem says it's still assessing the extent of the damage and it's too early to say whether the facility as a whole is a total loss.
- The state fire marshal is probing the cause. Austin McDaniel, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, said the investigation process is "triggered when major infrastructure is significantly damaged or destroyed in a fire," the Daily News reports. "This dock certainly meets that criteria."
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