ILWACO, Wash. — The first of the month marked the opening day of commercial Dungeness crab season in Ilwaco -- a day that some feared would not go on as scheduled because of a large fire at a commercial fishing facility.
Thousands of crab pots were damaged, but due to a herculean effort by the community and the fishing industry, the crews are back on the water and after crab pots. Mother nature, though, had other plans as the weather was so windy, the seas so rough, that there were four instead of dozens of crab boats out. By 4:30 p.m., the boats had yet to return to shore.
That fire happened a little more than a week before the start of the state's commercial Dungeness crab season – they made opening day nonetheless.
“You could see the tears behind their faces that said, ‘That’s it for me, this is going to put me out of business permanently because there goes everything,' and within hours of that, there were phone calls and donations being made coast wide,” said Angel Wirkala of Safe Coast Seafoods, a wholesaler in Ilwaco.
As for that fire, ATF and Pierce County investigators have worked alongside the local department, though they have yet to reveal what started the blaze.
Meanwhile, Wirkala and her crew are thankful to be back at work, thanks in part to the generosity of the community and her fellow fishermen.
“The fishing community is coast-wide. Everybody is connected in some way with the Pacific Ocean,” Wirkala said.
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