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A fire in the engine room of the warship HMCS Protecteur has left the vessel stranded in the mid-Pacific in heavy seas, according to Commodore Bob Auchterlonie, the commander of the navy's Pacific fleet.

The fire broke out Thursday around 10:20 p.m. PT as the Protecteur was returning from operational duties with nearly 300 on board.

Auchterlonie called the fire a 'serious event,' as the engine room contained a lot of fuel and combustibles.

"There was a significant fire and that crew battled that fire over a significant period of time, and they saved the ship last night," he said at a briefing Friday at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt, west of Victoria.

Earlier in the day, Auchterlonie said several people on board suffered minor injuries and were treated on the vessel. He would not specify how many people or the nature of their injuries.

He said the fire significantly damaged the machinery that controls the vessel's propulsion, forcing the ship to stop in the water about 630 kilometres northeast of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

"At this point, it's looking like she will be towed back to Hawaii, into Pearl Harbor," Auchterlonie said.

The American destroyer USS Michael Murphy and another ship were sent to assist the Canadian vessel.

"At the same time, we're looking at options with respect to ocean-going tugs that are available in Hawaii right now," said Auchterlonie.

The commodore said it's uncertain when the ship will arrive, but technicians are heading to Pearl Harbor to meet it.

The Protecteur is one of two auxiliary oil replenishment ships in the Canadian navy, both launched in 1969.

Auchterlonie said on Friday it was too early to speculate on the cause of the blaze, or how the incident would affect the navy's fleet of supply ships.

The Protecteur, which left on Jan. 6 with HMCS Regina, was carrying 279 crew, 17 family members and two civilian contractors. The vessel was returning to B.C. from extended operations with the U.S. navy in the mid-Pacific.

Crew family on board

The Department of National Defence said in a news release that having family members on board for the final part of such a voyage is a common practice with navy ships returning from extended operations and exercises.

"The idea behind it is they're seeing what life is like in a ship," Auchterlonie said. "Last night, they experienced more life on a ship than they probably wanted to experience again."

The aging Protecteur was damaged last August in a collision with HMCS Algonquin while en route to Hawaii.

The Algonquin sustained the most significant damage in the accident, but the Protecteur also suffered damage to its front end. Both ships were forced to cancel a planned voyage to Australia and instead return to port in Esquimalt for repairs.

The military announced in October that HMCS Protecteur and its sister ship on the East Coast, HMCS Preserver, will be retired in 2015.

Construction of new supply ships are expected to begin in late 2016, with a target of having them in service by 2019-20.