NTSB: Engine-room-only fuel shutoff valves let fire spread

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Federal investigators say fuel shutoff valves outside the engine room might have stopped the fire that destroyed a shrimp boat after an explosion off Louisiana last year. The National Transportation Safety Board says other shrimpers saw the smoke and rescued all four people from the Master Dylan, but the $300,000 boat was a total loss. A report issued Tuesday said one of the boat’s two generators exploded while the crew was shrimping off Port Fourchon about 7:45 a.m. on Dec. 1. The captain emptied a fire extinguisher into the engine room without damping the blaze, and could not get inside to use the fuel shut-off valves.