Scary boat fire in CT

[South of Heaven]

https://youtu.be/CsrY8oU_wew

 

[BrianG]

never did see anything resembling a fireboat.

 

[Alaskaflyer]

never did see anything resembling a fireboat.

Most marinas in most of the country don't have access to a fireboat

You can do as much good with a grappling hook on thick-ish cotton rope and attempt to pull it away from a dock or other boats to shallow water or even ground a boat for the local fire department to attack from land. Some law enforcement patrol vessels and marina service or tow vessels have push bumper arrangements to do the same thing.

I don't blame those two fellas in the small boat for retreating. It would have been incredibly hot from radiant heat that close without any protective gear or a cabin to shield them.

Most of our boats are built to burn

 

[rslifkin]

I can confirm the Stamford fire department definitely has a fireboat (or at least they did as of a couple years ago).

EDIT: Found a mention that the Stamford fire boat was out of service with a mechanical issue at the time

 

[slowgoesit]

And, unfortunately, if they guys in the small boat HAD pulled it away from the dock, and it ended going somewhere else, whoever owned the property were it ended would probably sue the guys on the small boat . . . . . in today's litigious society . . . Doesn't look like anyone was hurt, sad, but it's just stuff lost, no lives

 

[BrianG]

Most marinas in most of the country don't have access to a fireboat

You can do as much good with a grappling hook on thick-ish cotton rope and attempt to pull it away from a dock or other boats to shallow water or even ground a boat for the local fire department to attack from land. Some law enforcement patrol vessels and marina service or tow vessels have push bumper arrangements to do the same thing.

I don't blame those two fellas in the small boat for retreating. It would have been incredibly hot from radiant heat that close without any protective gear or a cabin to shield them.

Most of our boats are built to burn

Interesting. I thought all marinas have some sort of sworn harbor patrol. Our Marina's HP has pumps and nozzles on all their little whalers and Radons plus a CG cutter.
I don't blame the dinghy guys either. I was a fireman for a long time. Radiant heat wouldve been intense. I got a third degree burn through full turnouts from radiated heat. An inflatable filled with gasoline hoses also would not appreciate that fire. It's not even clear there was much to hook to. Main rule of a good First Responder is be the ANSWER to the problem, never become PART of the problem.

 

[BandB]

I can confirm the Stamford fire department definitely has a fireboat (or at least they did as of a couple years ago).

EDIT: Found a mention that the Stamford fire boat was out of service with a mechanical issue at the time

I hope Stamford can afford to pay all the damages.

What an overall pathetic response to the fire. But of course someone had time to take the video.

 

[BrianG]

I hope Stamford can afford to pay all the damages.

What an overall pathetic response to the fire. But of course someone had time to take the video.

Shocking they had no reserve vessel. Super basic practice in the 1st responder biz.

 

[psneeld]

Shocking they had no reserve vessel. Super basic practice in the 1st responder biz.

Not only do many marinas exist in places where there is no fireboat....having a backup vessel except in major harbors is even more rare.

 

[Comodave]

It would have been very easy to throw an anchor with about 10 or 15 feet of chain in into the boat and then tie that to an anchor and basically anchor the boat out in the middle of the harbor. Instead they let it drift into the other dock and burn several more boats. We have done this with a burning boat before and it stayed where we anchored it. That made it pretty easy to salvage because it was anchored to a spot so it didn’t drift before or after it sank. The whole key is using some chain on the anchor that is thrown into the burning boat so it doesn’t burn through the anchor line.

 

[kthoennes]

Always easy to second guess an emergency response, but Stamford is not some peanut, small potatoes marina or boating area. Oh gee, our boat was broken - doesn't cut it.

 

[Comodave]

Always easy to second guess an emergency response, but Stamford is not some peanut, small potatoes marina or boating area. Oh gee, our boat was broken - doesn't cut it.

Actually it isn’t second guessing, I have done it.

 

[twistedtree]

I doubt anyone could have gotten anywhere near close enough to throw an anchor or get any line on that boat.

 

[South of Heaven]

Monday morning quarterbacking anyone?? Unless I saw people on board or in the water then I would've stayed away too. Im not a firefighter and have no experience in what to do in that type of situation.

 

[Lollygag1]

In reading further it appears the fire department had to redeploy as the boat drifted out of range. Tough going.

We had a a boat fire at the gas dock last summer nasty

 

[Comodave]

I doubt anyone could have gotten anywhere near close enough to throw an anchor or get any line on that boat.

As I said above, I have done it. It can be done. But it does take a bit of quick planning. They would have saved the other boats and dock. The dinghy was close enough to it at to make the throw at least one time late in the video. You don’t have to come alongside just get within about 15 or 20 feet with a small danforth style anchor and some chain. Maybe I could not do it at my present age but I did it about 18 years ago.

 

[rslifkin]

The part of Stamford harbor where this happened is basically a dead end with a small river feeding into it. Not a ton of space to keep a burning boat away from others, and a few minutes drive to get from one side around to the other. Not exactly an ideal spot to try to manage this with no fire boat and the burning boat already cut loose.

I did notice in the video that it looked like they got a commercial tug in the area to put water on it at some point.

 

[SoWhat]

24 1/2 -foot 1978 Sea Ray, just finished refueling. Owner claims he turned blower on. Other neighboring fire boats including one from NYC eventually arrived on scene. 2 guys in a whaler managed to toss an anchor into one boat on fire and dragged it into channel.

Happy with my smelly diesels

 

[Comodave]

Too bad they didn’t drop an anchor in the middle so it didn’t drift into the boats on the other side. Wonder if the older Sea Ray had insurance?

 

[BrianG]

Not only do many marinas exist in places where there is no fireboat....having a backup vessel except in major harbors is even more rare.

Stamford doesn't look like small marina. Our marina has about a thousand slips and have several fireboats. Stamford needs to do some soul searching.

 

[psneeld]

Stamford doesn't look like small marina. Our marina has about a thousand slips and have several fireboats. Stamford needs to do some soul searching.

I guess so do many places.......

I am not sure where you are, but I know in many places, fire boatsl are really about fighting shoreline fires, maybe shipping, not boat fires. Land based fire departments are supposed to handle marina fires, thus they usually have dock standpipes that just pull from the water.

Its also why the USCG stopped equipping their boats with major fire fighting capability....they have some equipment, even my assistance towboat had a trash pump and a nozzle, but almost useless on boat fires without foam or other special gear.

 

[jleonard]

It would have been very easy to throw an anchor with about 10 or 15 feet of chain in into the boat and then tie that to an anchor and basically anchor the boat out in the middle of the harbor. Instead they let it drift into the other dock and burn several more boats. We have done this with a burning boat before and it stayed where we anchored it. That made it pretty easy to salvage because it was anchored to a spot so it didn’t drift before or after it sank. The whole key is using some chain on the anchor that is thrown into the burning boat so it doesn’t burn through the anchor line.

That would assume you had that kind of rig ready and you were young enough and had the crew to do it.
If I were in my inflatable I would never have gone near the burning boat for the reasons stated above, no protection. Even if I were in my 17 ft center console I would not have had the gear or crew aboard to help.

 

[rslifkin]

Here's a satellite view of the portion of Stamford harbor where this happened. The red line is where Hinckley is (not sure which dock is their fuel dock). Basically, if the tide was rising, cutting a boat loose from there would be ok. But if the tide is going out, that boat will head straight for a bunch of other boats before making it into the outer area of the harbor where it would be unlikely to cause damage.

 

[lwarden]

Appalling response from civilians and even though the fire boat was not available why was there not a harbor patrol or police boat present to do something? Yes, Monday morning quarterbacking but the comment of throwing a light anchor and chain out could have been done. The inflatable was way closer than you would have needed to throw an anchor. Then it could at least have been tethered till an additional anchor was deployed to hold it in position. That boat took more than 10 minutes to float across to the other dock, plenty of time to scrounge up an anchor and chain.
Response in San Diego would have been very fast from our harbor patrol I can assure you.

 

[psneeld]

What appalling comments from civilians?

Not sure what experience or how equipped the guys in the dingy were.....you?

Not every harbor back east has harbor patrol, police boats,, even harbor masters. If there are...sometimes they can be more than 10 minutes away.

Scrounge up a tossible anchor in 10 minutes? Maybe maybe not. First and foremost when approaching a boat fire without proper equipment is waiting long enough to ensure anything thats going explode already has.

Civilian/ good Sam intervention is never guaranteed.

 

[rslifkin]

Stamford does have police boats, but there's no guarantee they were out at the time, or that they weren't over at the other end of Stamford (which is outside the main harbor). So it could easily take 10 - 20 minutes for them to arrive on scene some days. Usually no harbor master on patrol unless that's changed in the last few years. Last time I saw a harbormaster boat in Stamford, I was a young kid.

FWIW, I grew up boating in Stamford, so I know the area well.

 

[lwarden]

Life involves a bit of risk and boating has it's share. In my 8 years of working on the water in Mission Bay I was involved in a hand full of rescues including capturing runaway boats and other rescues that would be considered dangerous. You do what you can do to prevent things from getting worse even if it includes some risk.

 

[psneeld]

After 23 in the USCG and 14 assistance towing...no, not everyone is equipped to go into harms way either psychologically, training wise, equipment wise, etc.

Adding more property damage, injuries or worse in a case of protecting property, is only rarely protocol for anyone or any agency. Only the few trained and equipped can usually jump right in safely.

The last boat/ marina fire I was involved with, the "trained" marina manager almost created a "much" worse situation because his "training and certification" was probably a 30 minute classroom course and made him WAY overconfident.

 

[lwarden]

I get that help from good Samaritans isn't guaranteed. At the very least one of the boats in the area could have done some fast donuts to create a wake which would at least push the boat away from the down wind boats and towards the land even if they didn't have ready access to an anchor and chain. That is pretty low risk and could give time till a more secure method was deployed. There appeared to be very little wind and it wouldn't take much of a wake to get it to move away from the downwind dock.

 

[psneeld]

Wake isn't a very good push unless it is HUGE....not good for the boats NOT on fire and a threat to injury to those not expecting it.


Nor is wake very good at directing a vessel in any direction.


The boat seems to be drifting pretty fast...really can't discern the current and the wind doesn't look as if it's just pushing the boat as much as the boat is sailing a bit.


The lady you can hear a lot is clueless and would probably bitc* like heck if boating fees or taxes wen tup to eliminate things like this as quick as everyone want.