'It was pretty intense:' Witness tried to put out Lake Union boat fire with garden hose
Witness recounts large boat fire at Seattle marina
A large boat fire sent smoke high into the sky and nearly burned down a marina on South Lake Union on Wednesday afternoon.
SEATTLE - A large boat fire sent smoke high into the sky and nearly burned down a marina on South Lake Union on Wednesday afternoon.
The backstory:
The Seattle Fire Department says it got the call that a boat was on fire at around 4:30 pm. When they arrived, the dock and roof attached to the marina were also starting to burn.
Seth Holsinger was checking on his boat when he saw a nearby boat smoking. With nobody else around, he grabbed a hose from the marina and tried to stop it.
"Started out as just kind of smoke showing and then all of a sudden fully erupted," said Holsinger.
He never expected he'd be facing down a fire after pulling up to the marina to work on his own boat.
"It was pretty intense," Holsinger said.
When he first saw smoke coming from the 40-50-foot boat tied to the dock, he grabbed a garden hose and did his best.
"I tried to fight the fire, it was me and multiple other people. We didn’t know if anyone was on board at the time," said Holsinger.
You could see the hose in the video, alongside a stream of water. It was no match for the tall flames. They were burning so hot, he couldn't get very close.
"Multiple batteries burst and then the entire marina, the roof caught on fire," he said.
With the fire spreading fast, it was time to clear out.
"I heard about five explosions, that’s about the time I dropped the garden hose," he said.
Those who live or commute around the lake saw the plume of smoke from across the water.
"It started to grow very quickly," said Mark Orwiler, who lives nearby.
The smoke billowed into the sky as fire crews arrived.
"Just saw a huge plume of black smoke. Must have been about 200 feet in the air," said Kirin Chun, also living nearby.
"You could see the flames jumping above the boat shed," said Orwiler.
The fire impacted nearby businesses as well. We talked to one family who had to cancel swim classes because of the blaze.
"It seems like the fire is actually in the swim class building or right around it so we can’t make it today," said Claudia Moncagatta.
Her daughter replied, "Yeah, I was hoping to go."
Fire officials said because of the location, battling the blaze was a challenge.
"When the fire extended into the roof, our land base crews did not have direct access to put water onto that fire. Fortunately, our fire boat crews were able to do so," said a Seattle Fire Department spokesperson.
Seattle Fire says around 80 firefighting crews were on scene to battle the fire.
"The roof fell and that was pretty scary, looking up and seeing smoke and flames up there," said Holsinger.
The boat could be seen under the water following the fire.
Fire and rescue boat crews put in a floating boom to surround the boat to prevent hazardous material from spreading into the marina.
Seattle Fire officials say the Coast Guard will take responsibility for dredging or getting the boat out of the water.
The Source: Information in this story came from the Seattle Fire Department and original FOX 13 Seattle reporting and interviews.
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