SEATTLE -- A Seattle-based fish processing boat is on its way back to Dutch Harbor after catching fire in the Bering Sea on Tuesday night.

The fire stared in the laundry room of the Pacific Glacier and spread through the boat, sending most of the106 crew members scrambling to get on life boats.

Sixteen of the boat's 106 crew members stayed aboard to fight the fire, smoke and steam while the remaining 90 took no chances.

"(The crew members) were put into survival suits and life rafts and picked up by many other boats that came to our assistance," said John Bundy with Glacier Fish Company, the Seattle-based owner of the boat.

The blaze burned for five long hours before it was finally extinguished.

On Wednesday night the ship was returning under its own power to Seattle. Bundy said all of the crew members are accounted for and fine.

"We want the families to know that everyone is safe," he said.

The Pacific Glacier is expected back in Seattle late Thursday night, Bundy said, though the boat's schedule may be delayed by any harsh weather conditions that my arise in Alaska.

Fisherman Karl Hansen said he experienced first-hand the fear the crew aboard the Pacific Glacier likely experienced on Tuesday night.

"We only had a little fire in the engine room. It's kind of panicky, I tell you. It's one of the worst feelings, because there's no where to go but the life rafts," he said.

Those rafts saved the lives of the crew members of the Pacific Glacier, but it didn't spare the boat. There is no clear estimate to the football field-sized boat, which would cost $55 million to replace.

Glacier Fish hopes to have the boat repaired in time for the May fishing season.

Eighty percent of the boat's crew is from the Seattle area.



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