HORSESHOE BAY (NEWS1130) - Not the usual calm ride for ferry passengers heading to Horseshoe Bay from Nanaimo this evening.
Passenger Ryan MacKenzie says the Queen of Oak Bay was about 15 minutes from docking when the fire alarms went off. "We could see smoke and some of the employees began getting into firefighting outfits. They started pushing us all to the front of the boat and closed the fire doors to the rest of the boat."
BC Ferries says that although there was some smoke, there was never a fire.
"We did have a mechanical failure with one of the ship's two main engines. It could be a seized engine. We are investigating that right now," says the corporation's Deb Marshall.