A former Sackville resident was among the passengers aboard the MV Holiday Island last week, when the ferry from Nova Scotia to P.E.I. caught fire.

“I don’t think that we’ll be getting on a ferry for a while,” Hayden Nurse said in an interview with CHMA.

Now based in Halifax, Nurse is a carpenter who plays drums in the band West Ave., named after the Sackville street where they used to practice.

The band had a gig lined up on the Island at Spud Fest, which is billed as a “shoestring, DIY, backyard music festival” near the Town of Souris.

But the trip to P.E.I. took an odd twist when a fire broke out in the engine room of the ferry.

More than 200 people had to evacuate the MV Holiday Island, near the ferry terminal at Wood Islands, P.E.I. The Transportation Safety Board is investigating, and no serious injuries have been reported.

CHMA caught up with Nurse to get his first-hand account of the experience.