On July 23, 2025, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) launched a safety issue investigation (SII) (M24A0348) into shipboard fires on commercial vessels and the effectiveness of emergency response in Canada.
Unlike individual occurrence investigations, an SII is broad in scope, involving an in-depth review of multiple occurrences and consulations with key industry stakeholders.
All responses are those of the stakeholders to the TSB in written communications and are reproduced in full. The TSB corrects typographical errors and accessibility issues in the material it reproduces without indication, but it uses brackets [ ] to show other changes or to show that part of the response was omitted because it was not pertinent.
| June | Year to date (June) | ||||
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2025 | 2024 | 2020-2024 | 2025 | 2024 | 2020-2024 | |
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2025 | 2024 | 2020-2024 | 2025 | 2024 | 2020-2024 | |
On July 22, 2022, a fire broke out in the engine room of the Holiday Island after a non-standard temporary repair made to the ferry’s fuel injection system failed and caused fuel to spray onto hot engine components and ignite. All passengers and non-essential crew members were safely evacuated, and a large-scale emergency response followed. Despite efforts from responders, the fire could not be extinguished, and the vessel was eventually abandoned.
Investigations conducted by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) are complex since an accident rarely results from a single cause. In the case of the July 2022 engine room fire of the passenger ferry Holiday Island, near Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island, several factors led to the accident.
