Fire in the Marina, Boat Owner's Worst Nightmare

Serious Fire, but the Marina Was Lucky

     Thanksgiving night about 6:30 pm a group of us that live here in Sunset Marina were gathering to
enjoy our Thanksgiving dinner and get together when someone shout that there was a boat on fire.  For all of us there this was a hugely frightening experience.  Luckily the wind was blowing from the North and away from all of the rest of the boats in the marina.

     The neighbors around the fire grabbed hoses and kept the sides of the boat next to the burning boat cool.  The burning boat was almost immediately fully engulfed.  The garden hoses could do little except to protect the boats that weren't ablaze.  When the fire department quickly arrived, they were able to get the fire under control, but the boat sank almost immediately after the fire was extinguished.

The Skimmer to Remove the oils

     Putting the fire out was only the beginning, getting oil control booms around the dock area that the boat went down was the next priority.  This was accomplished almost as quickly as they got the fire under control.  If not for their getting this don there would have been diesel oil throughout the marina.  The next morning the smell of diesel was throughout the marina, but the oil was contained within the booms.  The hazardous waste crew arrive and they put a skimmer in the containment area and were able to remove the diesel and motor oils coming from the boat.

Lifting the boat from the bottom

     Saturday Morning the crane arrived and proceeded to raise the boat from the bottom.  after it was
raised, the fire marshals and the arson squad went over the boat to find the cause of the blaze before releasing it for salvage.  It is on a barge now and ready to head to the boatyard in the morning.  I really doubt that there will be much that will be salvageable, but that is the next step in the process.

Sitting on the barge with the Fire Marshals

     You don't realize the potential for damage that a marina fire can have until you see something like this.  We were very fortunate, if the wind had been blowing out of the south like it normally does, the entire dock could have been involved and the damage much greater.  Fortunately there were no injuries or loss of life in the fire.  The boat damage was only to the boat that was on fire.