Fire in N.J.

[labrador]

Went to horseshoe cove Sat. afternoon inside Sandy hook to veg out after a busy week. There were only about 10 boats there as the weather was not going to be the greatest Sat. night. Was tinkering with a few things and heard my wife scream that a boat was on fire. I looked over approx 100 yds to see a brand new what looked like a Sea Ray or similar type about 45 to 48' with smoke coming out of the stern. Going to get the Jesus knife to cut the anchor line to go help, I then saw sea tow on the other side taking people off. Turned on the radio and found out all pob were removed however the dog didn't make it off. Took about 5 minutes before the flames started to really cook. Only 15 minutes after that and all you could see was the bow rail as the thing burned right down to the water. They had to wait for a FDNY boat to come in to fully put it out. Just could not believe how fast that thing burned! Make sure your fire supression systems are working!!!!

 

[Passages]

Scary stuff.

The boat was diesel at 45+ feet. Any of the local papers report what the cause was?

 

[Genesis]

It doesn't matter what fuel the boat uses. If the fiberglass gets lit you're done - you will NOT be able to put it out.

Statistics are that diesel boats burn more often than gas ones do. Gas, of course, can EXPLODE, but diesel will burn really nicely, and nearly all diesel boats have turbochargers, which get nice and hot. Get some oil on a hot one and.....

When a fire gets started on a fiberglass boat you have literally seconds to extinguish it before the hull gets involved. Once it does, that's it - get off, because you're going in the water one way or another and your options are reduced to swimming with or without bring broiled first.

 

[Jaxfishgyd]

Have seen two boat fires, both left a big impression on me. We have 3 smoke detectors and NINE portable extingushers onboard along with the big CO tank for the engine room.
Another reason we like our little 6-71 N's.

 

[Genesis]

Gigabite had a handheld extinguisher in EVERY compartment except the head (the Master and Guest SRs, along with the Galley one were all pretty close to "within an arm's reach" from there)

That includes the engine room, which also had its own dedicated FE-241 bottle.

Fires on board boats are deadly serious business..... there's only one place that a fire is arguably worse, and that's in a submarine....

 

[ohiohatteras]

How could they leave the dog behind?

 

[labrador]

Panic!!!!!

 

[Jaxfishgyd]

Look what happened here this morning.....
Yacht Catches Fire at Jacksonville Beach.


By First Coast News Staff

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, FL -- Fire crews have put out a fire on a yacht at the Beach Marine Monday morning.

The 40 foot yacht was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived on scene.

Officials say the vessel was destroyed.

No one was on the boat at the time of the fire.


Created: 7/17/2006 2:54:44 PM
Updated: 7/17/2006 2:55:46 PM
Edited by Precious Goss, Associate Producer

 

[Capt K]

One of my sons is a captain for Sea Tow in Ct and he called me when the NY fire was going on. He also was pretty down on the fact that the dog was left behind.

Tough call without knowing the whole story, but too bad either way.

K