Crab company building goes up in flames in Westport
Firefighters were called to the business just after 4 a.m., and flames had already engulfed the building when they arrived.
Crews from five fire departments spent several hours pouring water on the blaze at 1980 North Nyhus Street before getting it under control.
The structure that burned was not the company's main facility, but was used as a fish meal processing plant.
Workers there boil, dry and pulverize crab shells to be used for fertilizer and anticoagulant medicines.
Only four Washington Crab Company jobs were directly impacted by the fire, officials said, but hundreds of crab pots stored there by commercial fishermen were also destroyed in the blaze, and crab season begins in one week.
"That's a big blow to any fisherman," said crab fisherman Jon Bradshaw. "They need that gear. We're going to start fishing here in a couple of weeks, that's not good news."
Paul Krawczyk was looking through the scorched crab pots Monday afternoon, checking the damage for a friend who owns a fishing boat.
"It's bad enough dealing with weather and mother nature... and then an accident," he said.
Krawczyk said his friend lost 160 pots and will have to pay about $250 each to have them replaced.
The destroyed Washington Crab Company building is a $1 million loss.
"Westport does not need this, nobody needs it," said Larry Zimbelman of Washington Crab Producers. "It's sad at Christmas time or any time of the year to be out of work, but this is not what Wesport needed."
