Northumberland Ferries vice president Don Cormier said investigators, who will try to determine what caused the fire on the ferry as it made its regular passage between Nova Scotia and PEI, were on board Saturday morning. This followed efforts to remove water from the ship on Friday to ensure it was safe enough for people to board. “[We] we were able to get to a point where we were able to enter the venue to make it safe for entry,” Cormier said. “We did some cleaning of the deck plates so basically the TSB earlier this morning were able to safely enter the site after a marine chemist verified the atmosphere.” A team of four TSB investigators was deployed to PEI a week ago but had been unable to enter the engine room as it was flooded. Cormier said there is no way to know how long the search will take, but that investigators will have access to the ship as long as needed. “I’m sure that for most of the day today, the TSB will be gathering information they need to conduct the important investigation to find the root cause of what happened here,” Cormier said. In the meantime, access to the ship has been restricted for everyone else. Cormier said he expects an insurance company inspector to come in and assess the ship for insurance purposes once investigators are done. Service between Caribou, NS, and Wood Islands, PEI, resumed Wednesday after being suspended for five days following the fire. MV Confederation now operates four round trips per day as the only vessel on the route.
