Fire distroys a dozen boats in LaConner

[STOREBRO36]

If you have been watching the local news, you saw a dozen boats on fire, in shelter bay.
My boat was not one of them.
Ironic that the fire boat Alki, just arrived in LaConner, and no one knew how to operate her?
Steve

[Helmar]

Man, that is no good trying to pump water out to it like that. Got to be half close to hit them with foam. Too much water and they are done for anyway.
I had been out on car fires and you can keep dumping water on them but the rescue trucks hold less water and mix with foam which is the equivalent of some place in the neighborhood 3000 gallons.
If you get close enough you can flat smother fuel fires. When that fiberglass gets going it turns black like that picture.
Having the Alki would have been better than nothing for sure.

Good thing yours was not in that mix !!!

[TheBronze]

I watched a video of this after the fact. I have to say, the water borne portion of the response was highly inadequate. The little boat was the only vessel during the initial stages of the fire and its pump didn't appear to be working correctly. Even if it had, it was not enough to stop the fire from spreading. Only after seeing these pics did I see a larger response vehicle. And yes, the Alki would have doused the whole thing in short order. However, unless it has a ready crew, it more than likely takes far too long to get crew on board and fire it up, then get to the scene.

Also surprising was the fact that no one bothered to jump on to the end of the dock and cut those boats lose. A yacht adrift is far less likely to catch on fire and come off its lines and catch other boats on fire.... As it was, at least one boat did this and started a fire on a separate finger.

A shame for sure but it doesn't look like anyone was injured?

[Bflaherty]

It has been a sad week for the boating world... If you are connected at all the wooden boat side of things you have heard about the collapse of the historic "Katz Marina" building back east. This building housed 30-40 of the rarest and/or awarding winning vintage wooden boats in the world!!

You can follow the whole story here: http://www.woodyboater.com/

Dock fires are always hard to fight as there is no good way to get in there. Also, in a tight area like shelter bay, I would think that having boats adrift might actually hinder the firefight as they could become obstacles rescue crews would have to navigate around. There must be some reason why firefighters do not cut them lose...