Squalicum Harbor (Bellingham) on Fire!

[James McMullen]

Horrible fire this morning at the big marina in Bellingham. I used to keep a boat there myself. Yikes!

Two people who were livaboards are missing and more than a dozen big boats lost so far. :(

http://media.bellinghamherald.com/smedia/2012/03/30/09/36/EEJxD.St.39.jpg

Bellingham Herald (http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/03/30/2460444/crews-battle-fire-at-squalicum.html)

[seedy]

Quote:


The Bellingham Fire Department lost its fire boat, the Fire Belle, earlier this year when it was put up for auction. City officials said the boat was not getting used enough to justify keeping it.

Keeping the boat cost the city about $30,000 each year. This is the second fire in the harbor in the past month.

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/03/30/2460444/crews-battle-fire-at-squalicum.html#storylink=cpy

[Yeadon]

Weird how the tops of the pilings are burning, too.

[Dryfeet]

Weird how the tops of the pilings are burning, too.


It's the plastic 'anti-seagull' cones that they put on the pilings. Probably ignited either by the heat or some of the explosions.

[darroch]

What a shame. I hope everyone got out okay.
I've harboured a secret desire to live aboard for years. I never considered this turn of events.

[David G]

God I hate these kinds of stories!

[htom]

Yikes. Ouch. Sorrow. Deaths? That $30,000 a year is looking like a foolish saving to more than a few, I'd bet.

[wizbang 13]

Gig Harbor had a whole covered marina burn up 8 years ago. About 60 boats lost. Tacoma's 'spensive fireboats were both broken. Paint melted and windows broke on boats in the next marina. An alloy boat at the end melted. I got there and propane bottles were cooking off and shooting across the harbor.Sobering.
http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=/watch%3Fv%3DjVDBinYvj7E

[skuthorp]

Once those plastic boats take fire there's no stopping them, one 60footer burnt here last week. We don't have a fire boat unless you call a 3 man tinny with a pump one. But land based fire forces contained the blaze at least. It sunk, total loss.

[wizbang 13]

A few years after the Gig Harbor fire, the town got a new Police Zode and had a monitor( fire hose thingy) mounted on the bow,( like a 50 cal homeland security boat).
I was gone at the time, but my buddies tell me that the first time they tested the monitor, the zode went spinning around in circles from the "recoil" of the water blast force.
Gaw, I wish I had seen that.

[Captain Intrepid]

Aye, it takes careful application of the engine to oppose a monitor. On a large ship you have to be careful with the monitors too, if you hit a small boat with one of them, you'll put the fire out... by sinking it instantly.

[the_gr8t_waldo]

30k$ a year seriously understates the cost of these thing! take 5the boat cost and the 20 pluss crew at 70-100 k$ plus, per. shore facilities etc..the price blossons to well over 2-3 mil$ per.year. nothing to sneeze at!!!

[Dryfeet]

A few years after the Gig Harbor fire, the town got a new Police Zode and had a monitor( fire hose thingy) mounted on the bow,( like a 50 cal homeland security boat).
I was gone at the time, but my buddies tell me that the first time they tested the monitor, the zode went spinning around in circles from the "recoil" of the water blast force.
Gaw, I wish I had seen that.

I run our local fireboat in the San Juans. That monitor reaction force needs to be harnessed but can be done, mostly by keeping it pointed on the centerline and allowing the driver to do the aiming. We have developed a procedure that allows us to work in marinas using a single, very long spring line and using the engines and monitor to hold position while also being able to direct the stream where we want it.

As a volunteer dept. it's a whole bunch less than million$ to run a small marine fireboat. That said, a replacement boat will cost a goodly chunk. (must be why we don't have one coming anytime soon)

[orbb]

That $30,000 a year is looking like a foolish saving to more than a few, I'd bet.

Particularly to the insurers of the lost boats and marina.

[SamSam]

30k$ a year seriously understates the cost of these thing! take 5the boat cost and the 20 pluss crew at 70-100 k$ plus, per. shore facilities etc..the price blossons to well over 2-3 mil$ per.year. nothing to sneeze at!!!
2-3 mil$ seriously overestimates the cost of the thing. If they have twenty plus crew hanging around to deploy on this small boat with what looks like one 2" nozzle, they have serious estimating problems.

http://media.bellinghamherald.com/smedia/2012/01/30/15/57/1en1CV.Em.39.JPG

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/11/22/2282382/out-on-the-water-with-the-fire.html#http://media.bellinghamherald.com/smedia/2011/11/22/16/39/dbk78.St.39.JPG

[the_gr8t_waldo]

we had a city fire dept., fire boat. a full crew was 6 people. but to have 24hour/7day coverage it took over 20 people. and you just don't get such highly skilled people from your local "larbor ready" store front opperation, either! belive it or not these people actually want to go home after their shift is over- what's with that??!! add to that the cost of the boat, fuel, maintance, and shore facilities the cost is every bit of 2m +... that's yearly! &none of these boats sit idly, waiting for the klaxton to sound..they burn money all the time. we got rid of ours 3 years ago,since it turned out to be not cost effective. but they were the "bees knees" for parades! but for some reason the city keeped the water front facilities- i think it's now used as a place to hang out for the officers..to do paper work... go figure!

[Lew Barrett]

Horrible fire this morning at the big marina in Bellingham. I used to keep a boat there myself. Yikes!

Two people who were livaboards are missing and more than a dozen big boats lost so far. :(

http://media.bellinghamherald.com/smedia/2012/03/30/09/36/EEJxD.St.39.jpg

Bellingham Herald (http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/03/30/2460444/crews-battle-fire-at-squalicum.html)

That's where Rita lived when I bought her in 1994. Horrible, especially with the loss of life. A lot of wooden boats likely went up in those flames, as that's where the boat houses were. It's sad when it involves the loss of people's dreams, but so much more a tragedy when it involves the loss of life.

[Art Read]

Damn... That's the dock I used to work out of back when I was doing sailing classes... My buddy lived aboard there. Any news of the names?

[BBSebens]

Ok, here's the local report. I can see this from my home.

The report from the local paper
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/03/31/2462444/coast-guard-missing-couple-was.html (http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/03/31/2462444/coast-guard-missing-couple-was.html)

A row of 20 individual boathouses went up at about 5:30 am. This is the furthest out set of boathouses, G East. All the structures were quite old, still with lots of creosote in them. It is unknown at this time how many of them were occupied.

The live-aboard couple had not been found, and i believe is presumed dead pending dives to check out the wreckage. They operated the America's Cup, a coffee stand at the top of the ramp, a well known place for local boaters. They are Jim Langei, 43, and Sterling Taylor, 33. The BPD are treating this as a crime scene. The area is closed off, but I'll snoop around when I get a chance. I have a few friends with boats in that area.


About the Fire Belle. She was in need of a quite a bit of maintenance and upgrades, and quite frankly, never got used. She was not manned, but simply kept in a state of readiness. It had been many years since she had responded to a fire. We also have two 44' CG Cutters stationed in Fairhaven (just across the bay). The marina is new concrete docks with standpipes, so response from an engine is still pretty effective. That said, I won't be too surprised if the Port suddenly gets interested in some more significant fire suppression systems. The Port actually just finished up replacing the last of the wooden docks with new concrete ones.

Interesting side-note, I'm told that there are no new Boathouses allowed in Squalicum Harbor, probably eco stuff. So I'm curious if they will be able to replace these. If not, rent just went up.


A big thanks to the Bellingham Fire Dept. and the CG Cutter Sea Lion for doing a great job.

ht

tp://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/03/31/2462444/coast-guard-missing-couple-was.html (http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/03/31/2462444/coast-guard-missing-couple-was.html)
Ok
Read m
ore here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/03/31/2462444/coast-guard-missing-couple-was.html#storylink=cpy

[Nanoose]

The woman was the one who made the 911 call noting fire/smoke on the boat...you think, with them being up, they'd have also been outta there...doesn't make sense....

[johnw]

Why does covered moorage ever come without some sort of sprinkler system? I know, it's not all that useful on the fuel tanks and whatnot, but for glass and wooden boats. it could make a big difference. Covered moorage just seems to spread fire like anything.

One of my old professors kept his boat there. It was glass, but some of the wood was rotting, and I did a little work on it. To get a slip, you had to slip the guy in charge a bottle of Jack. The whiskey didn't cost that much, I guess it was the thought, like kissing his ring. I wonder if it took two bottles to get into that covered moorage deathtrap.

[wizbang 13]

The new marina in Gig has special "burn away" panels to prevent the rapid spread of the fire. In the vid I posted you can see how FAST the fire ran along the roof.
On a snobbish note, ( who me?) no sailing vessels were lost cuz they cannot go under the roof.
Loss of life is of course a game changer.

[BBSebens]

On a snobbish note, ( who me?) no sailing vessels were lost cuz they cannot go under the roof.



Interesting that you say that.

A family friend, Doug, is a pilot, and took this shot of the leftovers.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/546035_2842585906895_1326750179_3105626_1370324613 _n.jpg



Doug also happens to be the owner of Irene, a Concordia Yawl. Irene is in the boathouse just to the left of the orange netting visible in the next set of boathouses. Doug re-did the cabin-top over this past winter.

Much to close for comfort.


On another note.. all of that floating dock is brand new. They finished installing it a few weeks ago. The only pieces not changed out were the pilings holding the boat houses.

[DGentry]

I've sailed with Doug on Irene . . . and I've walked those docks many dozens of times. There were always some interesting, usually old, boats in that section. I'm glad Irene (the last/youngest Concordia yawl) wasn't a victim, but it's tragic about the rest.

[Bob Triggs]

The woman was the one who made the 911 call noting fire/smoke on the boat...you think, with them being up, they'd have also been outta there...doesn't make sense....
You can be one breath away from asphyxiation and not know it. An explosion can incapacitate instantly.

[BBSebens]

Very sad update on the fire.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/04/28/2499749/squalicum-harbor-fire-investigation.html


The biggest point to take away from this is to make sure you hatches are actually usable.