SEATTLE — A loose barge drifted through Elliott Bay on Thursday afternoon, colliding with the marina near Pier 66 and briefly triggering calls for evacuation in nearby buildings.
The barge has been secured, no injuries have been reported and the evacuation was eventually called off, according to Seattle Fire Department spokesperson David Cuerpo.
The Coast Guard was notified at 1:25 p.m. that the floating platform was drifting from Terminal 18 toward Pier 66 in Elliott Bay.
The wayward barge could have caused more damage if not for quick thinking by Capt. Dan Krehbiel, who was manning the King County Water Taxi from West Seattle to Pier 50. Around 1 p.m., he noticed it floating without any tugboats, apparently heading toward the Great Wheel and the Seattle Aquarium, according to a spokesperson for King County Metro.
Krehbiel and crew steered the water taxi — the MV Doc Maynard — toward the barge, which was loaded with containers, and used the ferry’s bow to push the loose platform away from the waterfront and toward the less busy Pier 66 marina.
For a time, aquarium staffers thought they might need to be evacuated, but it turned out to be unnecessary, said Tim Kuniholm, aquarium spokesperson.
The Doc Maynard was not damaged and taxi service was delayed by just 15 minutes.
Following the barge’s collision, three tugboats took control of it and began transporting it to Terminal 115.
Julie Fitts was chaperoning her son’s field trip to the aquarium and was walking back to the school buses when she saw the barge floating toward shore.
“No one else seemed concerned,” she said, but she felt something wasn’t right. As the barge moved closer, she wasn’t sure how the physics of a collision would play out and whether people on land would be in danger.
When it did collide, it wobbled and the back end swung. Shortly after, several tugboats sped in to try to secure it.
Cuerpo said the buildings on Pier 66 were given an evacuation order as a precaution, but the order was canceled when it became clear the tugboats had gotten the barge under control.
The Port of Seattle will conduct an assessment of what happened, said spokesperson Peter McGraw. Coast Guard spokesperson Kip Wadlow said it is still gathering information, including who owns the barge and how it came loose, and would provide more details as they become available.
In 2014, two barges lashed together and moored off the Port of Everett’s Jetty Island came loose and drifted in the channel between Hat and Camano islands. The two barges beached on the breakwater at Mission Beach and were towed about three hours after they were first reported to be drifting, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office said at the time.
