Fire at our marina this Sunday

[Per]

At around 9 am on Sunday we heard a loud boom of sort, I was down below attending to my sleep needs; it sounded like something fell on the bulkhead above me, and it alerted me to peek out of my bunk. My 9 year old daughter looked at me and asked "what was that", only then did i realize it was something.. i ran upstairs and heard some guys yelling a few slips west of our.
Got my binoculars out and could see a guy doing something on the stern of a smaller power boat of sorts while smoke was coming from the bow ER vents..
In a matter of a few minutes (which felt like hours) the local marina fire boat got to the location, a police officer was on site already dousing the boat.
The fireboat got pumping and seemed to go at it forever, then black smoke and lots of fire visible. Local fire department now at the shore with 2 or 3 fire trucks. Finally after around 20-30 mins the fire is out..
Rumors were that the skipper had recently filled the gasoline tanks (from carry containers), then proceeded to start the engines without the proper "venting of the engine room" which i think is normal ops for gasoline operated boats...
Skipper was injured/burned - taken to local hospital; some said severe some said he was going to be fine..
photo taken when it was almost over (taken with a iphone)

 

[Marin]

Gas boats can inspire some pretty stupid ideas. A fellow in our marina a number of years ago had problems starting one of the engines on his twin gas Bayliner (I think it was a Bayliner, anyway). Poured gas directly into the carburetor of the reluctant engine, turned it over, it backfired big time and threw flaming fuel all over and by the time all was said and done his boat and two others were destroyed, a number of the other boats on the dock had severe soot coatings, and part of the dock was destroyed.

Common sense is not a requirement for boat ownership.

 

[psneeld]

Gas boats can inspire some pretty stupid ideas. A fellow in our marina a number of years ago had problems starting one of the engines on his twin gas Bayliner (I think it was a Bayliner, anyway). Poured gas directly into the carburetor of the reluctant engine, turned it over, it backfired big time and threw flaming fuel all over and by the time all was said and done his boat and two others were destroyed, a number of the other boats on the dock had severe soot coatings, and part of the dock was destroyed.

Common sense is not a requirement for boat ownership.

Wow...sounds just like the story about a former USCG helo pilot friend of mine...and a safety officer to boot.

Working on his Bayliner engines, poured gas into a carb...it blew..and his and several other boats burned up....what a close story...this guy was smart, safety oriented and a West Point Grad...still we sometimes take the wrong shortcut and pay dearly for it...fortunately no one was hurt in my story.

Three weeks ago a 18 foot center console blew at my marina...I had to tow it away from the gas dock to a sand bar and fire hose it for 1.5 hours till the local fire boat finally got some foam going..well it was a burned hulk by then..all I tried to do was keep the marina safe and try to keep the boat from being a bigger hazard till the firefighters took over....seems like on the water unless in a big city/boat oriented city....boat issues always take too long for the right thing to get going.

 

[Keith]

At Watergate marina?

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

I have a gas Sea Ray (while I am looking for a retirement Trawler) and some people are amazed at how anal I am when fueling. I will admit I do sometimes fuel from gas cans when I can save about $70 each time I put 30 gallon on board. But I never let anyone on board while fueling. I lift all the ER hatches for sniff test and run my blowers for 5 minutes with no exceptions.