A remote processing plant operated by Seattle-based Peter Pan Seafoods near Alaska's Aleutian Islands has been heavily damaged by fire.

Peter Pan spokesman Dale Schiffler confirms a fire at the Port Moller plant, but declines to provide further details.

But Bob Murphy, a state Fish and Game fisheries biologist assigned to the area for the summer fishing season, says the fire broke out Tuesday night and continues to burn as of Wednesday afternoon. He says no one was injured.

Murphy says the plant offices, the processing section and the facility's large freezer were destroyed. Still standing are housing quarters for about 150 workers, the egg processing house and part of the dock.

Murphy says a cause is not immediately known.

Port Moller is an unincorporated area on the Alaska Peninsula.

Copyright 2017 KING</s>The Peter Pan Seafoods processing plant in Port Moller has been devastated by a massive fire that burned through the night and into Wednesday morning.

No one has been reported injured, but power, running water and most phone and internet connections are down in remote community.

“The fire started kind of in the production end of things, kind of the freezing warehouse at Peter Pan Seafoods last night. And consumed most of the production facilities that we can tell,” said Bob Murphy, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game area management biologist based in Port Moller.

Murphy was reached a little before 8 a.m. Wednesday.

“Nobody’s been able to get down there because the fire’s still going. There’s obviously very, very extensive damage to the main production facility and office for Peter Pan, [it] is definitely consumed in fire. We can’t see some of the facilities on the other dock because the smoke is so heavy, so we don’t know what the status of those are … obviously still there’s a fire going on at this time. The main warehouses and all the living quarters are OK, and everybody’s safe, is the main thing.”

Murphy had just gone into work to try and restore the state services.

“I’m literally on my knees in the office right now trying to plug stuff in,” Murphy said. “We’ve got emergency generators here so we can get a functioning office right now, because all the power is out in Port Moller.”

A fisherman who watched the fire from his vessel reported that he saw flames shooting 150 feet high.

“The dock was cut to prevent the fire from basically coming towards more buildings,” Murphy confirmed, who said it was burning past the point of being able to contain it.

The cause of the fire has not been given.

Port Moller is “Peter Pan’s most remote facility,” according to the company website. The PPSF corporate office in Seattle had not offered comment by 9 a.m.

Murphy offered his best perspective on the firefighting efforts that were still ongoing.

“They have fire suppression systems here, and they’ve got water lines and hoses and such, and those were all used early on trying to keep the fire at bay, but it’s a 100-plus-year-old building, buildings, and lots of old timber and dry timber, and once it got going it was really hard, couldn’t stop it,” he said. “It went on for several hours, probably at least two hours I think, maybe two and a half, before it just got so intense. And now you’re down to where there’s fuel and there’s ammonia tanks and lines, and gets to the point where it starts being very dangerous to be around, and there was no way to keep fighting it.”

Murphy said he will continue to publish catch and escapement numbers for the Area M North Peninsula fisheries, and will likely make management decisions today as well, but he’s not sure if the fleet will be able to fish without their buyer able to take the catch.

“I have no what’s going to happen, but they will not be processing fish at the Port Moller plant, that’s for sure,” Murphy said.</s>Stories are posted on the APRN news page. You can subscribe to APRN’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook at alaskapublic.org and on Twitter @aprn

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The 100-year-old plant caught fire late Tuesday night, and the blaze continued to burn Wednesday.

The full scope of the damage is still unclear, but witnesses say it is extensive.

“The main processing facility is located on the dock. About 40 percent of the structures on the dock were affected by the fire,” said Precision Air’s Theo Chesley, who flew an aerial survey over the smoldering buildings Wednesday morning. “It looked like it could have been much worse, but the main generator systems, the cold storage, the refrigeration plant, the holding area and office all were devastated by the fire. About 60 percent of the other structures there on the dock did not burn. However, they could have been affected by the heat.”

Limited power and water have been restored to the plant.

Chesley estimated Thursday morning that there were more than 100 employees at plant employees still in Port Moller.

A winter generator, which is powering the cafeteria but little beyond that, survived the fire, he said.

“Anybody with a pulse and air taxi is trying to help these guys out right now,” Chesley said, describing the effort he and other pilots are making to fly workers out of Port Moller. “The wind is blowing about 35 miles per hour and visibility is not that great, so everybody’s just trying to do what we can and help these people out because they’re in a pretty tough situation.”

Fisherman Jared Danielson fought the blaze early Wednesday morning with a group on the beach while boats tackled it from the water.

They worked hard for about two hours to contain the blaze until building where the fire began collapsed.

“After it collapsed in that small area, we couldn’t get to that section that was still blazing,” Danielson said. “Basically once the wind got to it again, it just spread. We had to basically give up and let it run its course.”

No deaths or serious injuries have been reported, and the cause of the fire is still not clear.

Peter Pan Seafoods had not provided comment as of Thursday afternoon. However, Danielson said a representative from the company spoke to the Port Moller area over VHF radio Wednesday.

Danielson also spoke with that representative personally.

“We’re going to rebuild with new state-of-the-art technology is the plan. That’s what I was told,” Danielson said. “This fishery has been around a long time, so would only hope that they would do that. I’m third-generation fisherman in Port Moller. It would be devastating if they were just to let this cannery go away and never rebuild.”

For this year, Danielson said that for most fishing out of Port Moller, this signals an abrupt end to the season.

The fire also poses a complication for hauling boats out of the water.

A portion of the dock was cut away to contain the fire.

Danielson said that some boats that planned on hauling out for the winter at Port Moller may have to go elsewhere.</s>Stories are posted on the APRN news page. You can subscribe to APRN’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook at alaskapublic.org and on Twitter @aprn

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A large fire continues to burn at the Peter Pan Seafoods fish processing plant in Port Moller, Alaska, on the Alaska Peninsula. Much of the facility has been destroyed, and the plant is out of commission. Power is out in the village.