Murray Lavers and his crew had left the Sally Kathryn only about two hours previously when he got a call around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday that a boat was on fire at the Port Saunders Marine Service Centre.
A couple of kids down on the wharf in Port Saunders called 911 and that call went out to the members of the Port Saunders Volunteer Fire Department.
Lavers is a volunteer firefighter in the Northern Peninsula town and didn’t know it was his boat that was on fire until just before he got there and saw where the black smoke was coming from.
“I had a bad feeling then it was probably mine,” he said by phone from his home on Thursday.
“As soon as I got there I realized that there was no way that we were going to save the vessel.”
It was a hard sight for the 60-year-old fisherman, and his voice wavered as he said it’s been traumatic for his family.
“We watched our livelihood go up in smoke.”
As hard as it was, Lavers' primary concern became the vessels that were nearby, and local fishermen began to tow his boat away from the wharf. It wasn’t easy, but they got it done with a couple of outboard boats that were able to hook on.
The Port Saunders RCMP also responded to the fire, and in a news release said the vessel was engulfed in flames and posed a serious risk to the surrounding vessels and the government wharf.
Lavers said there were two other boats tied next to his, but the people who owned them weren’t in town and they couldn’t get access to them.
Laver’s boat is a total loss, and police say three others were damaged. No one was injured during the fire, which is not believed to be suspicious.
The RCMP is liaising with the Port Saunders Harbour Authority, the Canadian Coast Guard and the Office of the Fire Commissioner as the investigation continues.
Lavers said the replacement value of the Sally Kathryn is $3 million, but to him it’s invaluable.
“Thirty years' work gone up in smoke,” he said.
And he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to replace it.
“This is not settled up and even if it is I’m way underinsured to even look at anything new. Never get back into anything like I had.”
The boat was 14 years old, but was state-of-the-art, and Lavers has put a lot of his own money into keeping it in good shape, including spending more than $200,000 this year alone.
“Well, next year I don’t even know, with the way everything is now, if you could find a boat if you’d get anybody to insure you.”
He says he isn't ready to retire.
“But circumstances could take care of that.”
The loss comes as Lavers and his crew, which includes his son, had been preparing the boat for the mackerel and herring fishery after just finishing up on the shrimp.
“So that’s gone.”
The impact of the loss of the boat will extend beyond Lavers’ own family and two other crew members.
“It trickles down,” he said.
There won’t be any work for the extra crew members they usually hire for the mackerel and herring, and it will also affect the people who offload fish at the wharf, the tractor-trailer drivers who haul the product and the plant workers.
