A severely burned crewmember of Patrice McAllister, a tugboat that caught on fire on Lake Ontario early Tuesday, died in a Toronto hospital Wednesday morning, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The boat’s chief engineerwas flown to Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto Tuesday morning after suffering burns from a fire that likely started in the boat’s engine room.

His name and the names of the other five people who were aboard the U.S. vessel are not being released, the Coast Guard said.

The others were taken to nearby Kingston, Ontario, General Hospital Tuesday for treatment of minor injuries.

The 105-foot tug was headed to a New York port from Toledo, Ohio, and caught on fire about 2 a.m. Tuesday in Canadian waters some seven miles south of Prince Edward Point.

U.S. Coast Guard and marine safety agencies from Canada began Wednesdaytheir investigations into the fire’s cause in Clayton, the Coast Guard said in a news release.

Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.

You can continue on to this article in a few seconds, or you can visit one of our websites:

• Watertown Daily Times
• The Ogdensburg Journal
• Daily Courier-Observer