Fire at Washington seafood facility destroys hundreds of crab pots before season opener

A fire at a port building along the coast in Washington state destroyed more than 1,000 crab pots just ahead of the state's commercial Dungeness crab season, which opens Feb. 1. The blaze began around noon on Monday at the Port of Ilwaco, which is near the mouth of the Columbia River and north of Astoria, Oregon, KING-TV reported. The remote area of the fire made it difficult to get enough water supply to fight the blaze, the Ilwaco Fire Department said in a Tuesday statement.