Boatyard Fire

[rbgarr]

Washburn and Doughty, an East Boothbay shipyard that builds steel tugs, caught fire this morning and burned to the ground with two tugs under construction inside. No injuries, thank goodness, but they're an important employer here.

Welding sparks are suspected as the cause. Dense, potentially toxic smoke was visible for tens of miles. Hodgdon Yachts is located next door and the wind carried smoke and flames away from them.

http://i37.tinypic.com/9ghjew.jpg

[elf]

Oh dear.

[Hwyl]

Let's hope they plan on rebuilding (would be great if they relocated to Wells)

[Captain Blight]

I just hate to hear about things like that. You can't tell me a boat doesn't have a soul; and how much more soul does the place where they are brought to life have?

That'd bring a tear to a glass eye, though.

[Mrleft8]

On the bright side, if there is one, it happened in mid summer, not mid winter when one could presume there would have been many more boats in the yard....

[Alexander2]

I guess they are now are in the fireboat business.

[willmarsh3]

Major bummer :( Hope they can rebuild soon.

[webfoot]

Just caught it on the news.......they were interested in the old navy tank farm (now Mitchell Field) down the street from me as a yard site over the winter. Maybe that can be a temp site while they rebuild.

[Gary E]

Washburn and Doughty, an East Boothbay shipyard that builds steel tugs, caught fire this morning and burned to the ground with two tugs under construction inside.

Ummm... experienced company, doing exactly what they know how to do....
but this time it burns to the ground.....
Betcha there wuz lots of insurance on the place...

[Mrleft8]

Ummm... experienced company, doing exactly what they know how to do....
but this time it burns to the ground.....
Betcha there wuz lots of insurance on the place...
Some comments are not warranted. Rethink your attitude.

[Kasey]

Amen, Lefty.

Some folks oughta take it to the bilge.

[ishmael]

I hadn't heard this until the eleven o'clock news. It's going to be a blow to the mid-coast. By all accounts I'd heard, a fine yard.

It was a BIG fire. You get a fire going in a place like that, 150 years of volatile solvents, wooden buildings and such, and whoosh. All the fire crews could do was try to keep it from spreading.

A bunch of people out of work today. Best of luck to them. Thankfully I don't think anyone was hurt.

[Tylerdurden]

Ummm... experienced company, doing exactly what they know how to do....
but this time it burns to the ground.....
Betcha there wuz lots of insurance on the place...

George 2

[Tylerdurden]

Was listening on 16 and the Coasties had a exclusion running so that was the first I had heard of it. I just got back off the boat so I will flip on the news. Steven and I were hoping you would have a full set of photos AKA wooden boats reports.

[elf]

On the really bright side it didn't spread around to Boothbay Harbor Boatyard.

[rbgarr]

News report from Portland paper: http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story_pf.php?id=199089&ac=PHnws

[Gary E]

So... all you wusssies just wana live in fantacyland where eveything is rosie and wonderfull huh...
idiots

[Captain Blight]

God damn you are a tool, dude.

[Dave R]

I just came across pictures of this fire. It's amazing that they seemed to have kept it contained as much as they did.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3111/2659650404_0a553a9c72.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3258/2659653996_2940eb0aa1.jpg

[S/V Laura Ellen]

I feel for all those families involved in the fire. The loss of a business can have a profound affect on many people in the community and the outlying area.

I've know 2 business affected by fires, neither company was able to return to a sustained operation, such a shame

I hope this business can manage to rebuild and return to operation as soon as possible.

[ssor]

So... all you wusssies just wana live in fantacyland where eveything is rosie and wonderfull huh...
idiots


Some people should be culled from the herd at birth.

[Kasey]

... or placed on "bilge only" status.

The news report rbgarr gave us the link to made things sound real scary - the simple heat of the fire melting paint on nearby trucks, etc., calling in people from all around the county, getting the coast guard to loan them boats to use from the water to help keep the fire under control - it's just a blessing that nobody else was hurt and that they kept the fire contained.

That news report also said that two firemen got hurt working on the fire.

None of this is a joke to me, and I'd really like to see the obnoxious one banned. I'm sure that's why this thread was posted here, and not in the Bilge.