Everett, WA Marina Fire

Another fire at the Port of Everett. This time in a port owned boathouse. Could have been much worse. Thinking it is (was?) an Island Gypsy?

Bummer on the fire and the loss of property but I am impressed on how it was contained. Are there sprinklers?

Larry M said:

Bummer on the fire and the loss of property but I am impressed on how it was contained. Are there sprinklers?

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After some very significant marina fires a number of years ago, the standards required for any covered moorage were updated and all marinas required the boathouses or covered slips to be updated. My understanding is that most of the changes were designed to help isolate and contain a fire.

I don't think you will find many boat houses that have sprinklers. Don't get me wrong, they are the best defense against fire, but its hard enough to get them in places of much higher value and hazard, let alone a boat house. Also, the fire load of a FG boat loaded with fuel would require a very substantial system (strong water supply, big pipes and heads), if it were designed properly to control the fire load. I bet someone is going to post a picture of a boat house with sprinklers

dhays said:

After some very significant marina fires a number of years ago, the standards required for any covered moorage were updated and all marinas required the boathouses or covered slips to be updated. My understanding is that most of the changes were designed to help isolate and contain a fire.

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A little ove 13 years ago our covered marina was totally destroyed by fire, 48 of the 50 boats were destroyed. The fire went from 1 boat to the entire marina in a little over 15 minutes. At that time the marina had a metal roof with no venting or anything to block the spread of flames or superheated gases. Instead of burning from the dock up the majority of boats caught fire and burned from the top down. The new marina has blowout panels over each slip and smoke curtains between every 4th slip. Also the new marina has a fully vented ridge, all these modifications are designed to get rid of these combustible gases and heat so the fire cant spread overhead...

No sprinklers that I'm aware of. Would think retardant foam or the like would be better for fighting 40 feet of a boat made of and containing petroleum products.

Copy that. Foam will extinguish it but they are very $ systems. A wet pipe sprinkler system, IF designed properly, will provide a level of control through cooling and wetting adjacent areas, and hopefully prevent spread beyond the fire origin. The boat would be toast either way. Bottom line, sprinklers, and that includes foam/water systems just aren’t used much in these instances for a lot of reasons, and mostly the cost.. Fire separation, prevention, and other measures can be used fairly effectively.

In the northern areas how do you keep those water pipes from freezing in the winter?

The local news had a picture of a nice Bayliner parked just outside the boathouse that burned. I wonder if it survived.

mramoo said:

In the northern areas how do you keep those water pipes from freezing in the winter?

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When we have a cold snap, which seems less and less, the port shuts off and drains the water lines to the docks.
For a sprinkler system, any system that is exposed to freezing temperatures is typically a "dry" system. The pipes are filled with compressed air instead of water. When a head pops, the air escapes and then water can fill the system.