My Buddies Marina Caught Fire - Warning, Graphic Pics!

[M.D. Holloway]

A friend of mine who I work with owns a marina on Eagle Mountain Lake (about 20 min from us). He had a fire this weekend. Apparently somebody was working of their engine and while adjusting the engine timing the starter got stuck and sparked an unwanted ignition. I am a little sketchy with the exact details. The pics show the devastation and destruction. 4 boats in all were lost and a 5th partially as well as 7 slips. The guy that was working on his engine that started the fire got burned up pretty bad – they had to airlift him out.

[ronin]

damn! looks like that one burned well into the night. hope he'll be all right

[lendaddy]

Ouch, that sucks. But on the upshot there are at least three very happy boat owners.

On edit: Did not notice someone was injured, my little joke was not meant to be flippant about that, I simply did not notice. Hope they are OK.

[charleskieffner]

wow unreal pics! boats, fuel vapors confined spaces................bad combination! watched boat blow from distance at lake powell. was refueling and 2 couples were on board. all four had been drinking heavily. after fueling up, failed to leave hatch open, and vent bilge..............you guessed it...........BOOM! 1 guy dead other 3 burned bad. if i had been that close and saw that conflagration i would not have stuck around to take pics i assure you! hope the guy is alright?

[RickM]

Hope your bud is OK. Luckily Texas has one of the two most advanced burn centers in the country.

[Overpaid Slacker]

Ventilation, ventilation, ventilation.

Too bad about the injury, hope he's OK; ruined some folks' summers too.

JP

[M.D. Holloway]

I didn't know the guy that got burned. Just found out he will be OK, his hair and eyebrows melted some and he has 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his face, arms and chest but he should make it. My friends marina has suffered though. He intended it to be a retirement option. He put a bunch of off hours work and money into it. The upside is insurence will cover the damage (from the guy who started it) but that doesn;t cover the lost $$$ from not having 7 slips this summer.

Isn't there some sort of fire suppression systems that are bio friendly and ecomonical for a small marina owner to install?

[JeremyD]

Fiberglass burns like a banshee... from insurance he should also be able to recover lost revenue.

[singpilot]

The closest gas powered boat to me is 7 slips away. Downwind.

I worry about electrical fires on someone else's boat as much as gas fires. Those usually happen in the dock too.

Hope the guy survives it all.

[charleskieffner]

overhead H2O system, but then he would be liable for water damage to other boats not involved! its kinda damned if you do , damned if you dont situation. surprised by size of boats that auto/halon systems didnt go off and suppress fire at the outset. glad to hear buddies ok. was told in coast guard fire training that a TEASPOON of fuel, in a enclosed bilge gives enough vapors off to produce explosion equal to (1) stick of dynamite!

[M.D. Holloway]

My friend told that none of the boats exploded just burned really well. I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that the tanks may have been all full. Explosions occur better with vapours right?

My friend spent time pulling the other boats into the water away from the fire. He is still sore - mind you he is pretty strack, works out all the time. I guess the aderniline kicked in now his body is suffering the aftermath.

[charleskieffner]

VAPORS GO BOOM! saw demonstration of cigarette thrown into coffee can full of fuel. cig went out. then after waiting for vapors to come out another cig was thrown and we had ignition of vapors. damnest thing, you never could have told me that unless i saw it w/my own eyes! your buddy is lucky that no ne else was on board other boats sleeping down below. that could have been ugly. another top tip about boats and fuel and carbs. left mine sit for 2 months in back yard(25ft cruiser w/big block) decided one day to put muffs on drive, turn on hose and fire engine up. opened hatch, smelled for fumes.........nothing. turned blower on as per drill. engine was turning over fine but wouldnt start..........looked over shoulder and a gusher of fuel was coming out of holley 850 double pumper! seal/gasket had dried up causing leak and we had lots of fumes..............BIG TIME! went to battle mode, shut ignition off, jumped out of boat,grabbed water hose and douched engine off from topside. grabbed trusty bilge plug wrench and undid bilge plug to allow gas/water to drain out. continued applying water til no more fumes. that was CLOSE! was sitting on 70 gallons of premium fuel next to my house!

my next boat will have fuel injection..............PERIOD! i hate holly carbs!

[911 Rod]

A good freind of mine lost his while in storage this winter.
20 boats in total were destroyed
Before and after.
and after.[

[Overpaid Slacker]

Just a guess re: suppression systems, but... Any of the halon replacements ought to be "friendly", but being outside, I don't know what they'd be worth.

In a climate that doesn't freeze, you could have a charged CAFS system that was not a "deluge" system. Meaning, the extinguishing agent fills the system right to the heads, under pressure. The agent is a compressed air foam -- this stuff is awesome, increasing surface area (and therefore cooling) by factors of thousands. And only those extinguisher heads actually over the fire (or significant heat) will open, not every single head in the system (which is a "deluge" system).

Now (here comes Fire 1) one of the issues with such a situation is that you may have several different types of fires going on in the fire... each of which are extinguished by removing a leg of the "fire tetrahedron" -- fuel, heat, oxygen and chemical reaction.

Class A (normal combustibles like fabric, wood, etc.) which are almost always extinguished not by smothering, but by cooling. In short, wood as a solid doesn't burn, but when it's pre-heated to its ignition temperature, it off-gases and that gas burns. If you can cool the fuel to the point where it won't off-gas, it will no longer burn. Water cools a Class A fire to the point it won't sustain combustion by taking energy and turning into steam (for a volumetric incrase of 1800x). Water doesn't smother your typical fire. The science behind fire and its suppression is very very interesting.

Class B (combustible liquid fires) are more often than not extinguished by smothering. You lay a blanket of oxygen-depriving material on top of the burning liquid, depriving it of oxygen. Here's where a CAFS system could be more effective than just "water" or any smothering gas (such as Halon) that will dissipate in open air.

Class C (electrical fires) are extinguished by removing the source of the fire (shutting off the power), so you'd need to include auto power kills in the event of a fire detection. Problem is, once you've put out the Class C fire, it's usually left behind Class A and or B fires.

Class D (metal fires; think magnesium, sodium, aluminum, etc.) are really colorful fun, and not easy to extinguish through traditional means. The extinguishing agent for these is usually a dry powder. If you put water or a water-based agent on a metal fire, you want to do it from a safe distance. Frankly, if you've got a metal fire on your hands in these circumstances, it's probably because a Class A, B or C fire got the Class D material hot enough to combust. Much like fighting a car fire; lots of fuel burning on magnesium wheels or engine parts? ... don't stick around for too long.

There's also a Class K fire, for edible fats (Kitchen fires; think fryolator) but that's unlikely on a boat.

Frankly, boats are made to get wet, so "damage" from a CAFS system would be minimal, IMHO, and far less than letting the damned thing burn to the waterline and ignite everything around it. Even a drychem "ABC" extinguisher shouldn't do much damage to a boat, though it makes quite a mess. I think it's ammonium phosphate in most ABC systems ... check w/ someone more fluent in chemistry to see if there's lasting enviro damage with that; at least compared to the damage of spilling potentially hundreds of gallons of fuel, oil, blackwater, etc. into the water.

Wow, that was a ramble.

JP

[charleskieffner]

911rod.............your after pic made me ill this early am. sorry to see that!

[kach22i]

Scary pictures.

[911 Rod]

Originally posted by charleskieffner
911rod.............your after pic made me ill this early am. sorry to see that!

I understand it was a very emotional first sight.
He has since bought the exact boat, but he had to go to Florida to find it.
All is well now. Sort of like getting a new puppy I guess.
And yes his second one has a bigger motor!