Fire at Sand Point Trident plant halts operations, leaves locals without fuel

Maggie Nelson.

Sand Point is without access to fuel after a fire broke out at the local Trident Seafoods plant.

The fire started early Thursday morning, pausing the processor’s operations, including its fuel sales, which the small eastern Aleutian community relies on.

Sand Point Police Chief Benjamin Allen said the lack of fuel is the biggest concern at the moment.

“Nobody can get gas right now,” Allen said. “[Trident] has to get clearance from the Coast Guard before they can start the gas pumps back up again.”

Allen said he doesn’t know how long that will take, but Trident has been working to get things going again.

“During the incident, their generator threw a connecting rod out the side of the engine block and it ruptured the fuel line to the generator,” Allen said. “And there was a good bit of diesel on the surface of the water that Trident’s been cleaning up.”

The small fire started in the generator room of the facility around 1 a.m. Thursday, according to Trident’s Vice President of Global Communications Alexis Telfer.

In an email to KUCB, Telfer said no injuries were reported and “the fire was quickly extinguished thanks to the local fire department and Trident’s preventive measures and emergency response procedures.”

One of the facility’s generators was damaged by the fire, and the four other generators were shut down due to water exposure during the fire department’s response, according to Telfer. The plant and the bunkhouse were without power for most of the day Thursday.

Telfer said they are working on drying out the generator room and hope to resume operations soon. She didn’t say how the fire started and had no further comment when asked about fuel disruptions.

Police Chief Allen said there didn’t seem to be any structural damage to the building. He said the damage was contained well, given the fire’s extent.

“My officer said that Fire Chief Jason Bjornstad showed a great amount of courage charging into the fire with the hose,” Allen said. “At that point, it was just the two of them, and he was feeding hose to him, and then other volunteers showed up, and they were able to knock it down.”

He’s hopeful Trident will have the fuel pumps back up and running in the next day or two. Still, Allen said with the recent start of the pollock ‘A’ season, when boats are usually bringing in local tax revenue with their harvest, the timing of the incident isn’t ideal.

“Unfortunately, it hit us — or hit them — when the city could most use the revenue,” Allen said.

The Sand Point Trident facility operates year round with anywhere from 50 to 100 seasonal employees. They process various kinds of seafood, including pollock, crab, salmon and cod.