Chris Sullivan, a longtime sailor on the Chesapeake, moved to Falmouth, MA, a few years back to live (on his powerboat) and work in a marina. Here is his story of recently experiencing a slip mate's boat fire:
Being awoken from a deep slumber by someone banging on the side of your hull at 01:30 is not anyone choice of how they would want to wake up. Yet there I was in the early morning hours of July 11 waking to just that and wondering if it was just a dream. Sadly it wasn't, what I came out of my cabin to see I hope no boater has to ever witness: a neighboring boat starting to go up in flames and a crew member attempting to put out the flames with a garden hose.
Below is a quick take on my thoughts on what I did in this situation, along with a few things in hindsight I should have done, and things I will do moving forward.
Things that were done right
- Checked with the boat crew to make sure everyone was off the boat—I got all the important info: was everyone off, how many where there, do they know what caused the fire, and what space does it appear that fire is currently?
- Called 911—KNOW YOUR MARINA’S ADDRESS. All your boat friends know where your marina is, but the dispatcher normally doesn't have a clue. Be sure to let them know everyone is accounted for if that's the case; don't have them spending extra time and risk looking for a person
- Had my boat ready for sea—I have always prided myself on having my boat ready to leave the dock in less than five minutes; this was clutch that morning
- Evacuated my dog to my truck for safety—I planned on getting the boat off the dock, but in case I couldn't, I made sure to get him safely ashore. The same would go for any human crew
- Grabbed important personal items (passport/license/remote hard drives) to stash in my truck—again being able to stay calm, you will quickly realize what’s important to you, grab it, and bring it to safety when evacuating. This should take less than 10 seconds
- Got the boat out of the slip to another location in the marina UPWIND from the fire
- Made sure once my boat was secure to go to the fire department on scene and pass along any additional info I had on neighboring boats and possible people onboard.
Things to change
- While taking off from the slip it took WAY too long to undo all the lines. Liveaboards sometimes tie the boat up for a high wind and/or weather event that has come and gone and not removed the lines once the weather event passes. I was guilty of this, and the additional three lines took time that I didn't really have.
- Along the same lines about mooring, all of my lines where made up with extra line on the boat end, meaning I didn't have just the eye of the line on the cleat. Again more time was needed to undo each line between this and the additional lines, so over an extra minute was needed to leave the slip (again time is important).
- Better / bigger hooks on the pilings to hold the lines: While leaving the slip, lines were thrown onto the pilings but missed, which meant I had four lines in the water... I had to pull out very slowly bumping in and out of gear to make sure the lines didn't get wrapped in my propeller, again slowing things down.
- A large knife—thankfully the I avoided sucking in a line, but if I had, I had no quick means of cutting the line to free; the boat and I would have ended up stuck and possibly in a worse position. In the future I will be keeping a large knife for line cutting readily available at the helm.
- Although I called 911 and fire and EMS arrived, they did not alert the USCG until much later. While moving my boat to its new slip I should have called the USCG on the VHF to ensure they were aware. They may or not be able to assist.
I am in the unique position that the marina I keep my boat is also where I work, so once my boat was secure, I attempted to start moving other boats away from the fire to hopefully curb the spread of flames. Unfortunately this was met with confusion and a very headstrong fire dept. that would not allow me to tow boats away from the scene. I should have been more firm in this regard and moved the boats, as most fire fighters are not trained in marina / boat fires.
FOR BOAT FIRE PREVENTION TIPS, CLICK HERE.
