Large Carver fire at dock - New Jersey

I would hope my slip neighbors would leave mine. I have agreed value insurance so I would make out like a bandit. Haha

Seriously though moving others boats out of harms way is much better than standing there worrying about getting sued. What if someone was sleeping in one of those adjacent boats? Far better to do the right thing and help people out.
 
moparlvr4406 said:
would it not be better to untie the burning boat and shove or tow it out away from the others if it could be kept controlled ??
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Now instead of a fixed fire which can only affect its immediate area, you have a mobile, unpredictable fire that can go anywhere and set fire to anything. There is no way you are going to be able to maintain control of the boat once its untied, if you can even stand the heat long enough to untie it to begin with.

The heat a boat fire puts off is intense, if you have ever been near/ in a boat fire, I'm surprised honestly a few of the people in the video were as close as they were, The closest I have been to a boat explosion was about 30 feet away and the heat from the resulting fire was extremely intense and uncomfortable even at that distance. If I hadn't been trying to take people out of the water, I would have moved even further back.
 
Our marina had a fire back in the early 90's. Burning boats floated out of their slips and caught another dock on fire.
 
Dsybok said:
Now instead of a fixed fire which can only affect its immediate area, you have a mobile, unpredictable fire that can go anywhere and set fire to anything. There is no way you are going to be able to maintain control of the boat once its untied, if you can even stand the heat long enough to untie it to begin with.

The heat a boat fire puts off is intense, if you have ever been near/ in a boat fire, I'm surprised honestly a few of the people in the video were as close as they were, The closest I have been to a boat explosion was about 30 feet away and the heat from the resulting fire was extremely intense and uncomfortable even at that distance. If I hadn't been trying to take people out of the water, I would have moved even further back.
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NEVER BEEN NEAR ONE
I just thought it would be a better idea to isolate the cause
guess I'm wrong :huh:
 
Great video and a good response by firefighters.

On the debate on "what would you do" I have been on the scene of dozens of structure and vehicle fires. They can be very unpredictable and get out of control quickly. Safety, not property should be concern #1. Make sure no one is on the nearby boats and call for help.

While pushing boats out of the way may sound like a good idea, it is likely dangerous and could hamper first responders. It would be interesting to see what the Coast Guard would suggest.

Personally, my boat is insured and it can be replaced. People cannot.
 
Certainly situational dependent.

I agree sometimes it may be best to just evacuate the area.

Moving adjacent boats would only be prudent very early in the event (.....as I said, most of these burn to the water line so when I see a small fire on a boat, I know it will likely be a very large fire in a few minutes).
 
My gut reaction was that each of those pedestals probably had a hose connected to it. While it most likely isn't enough to put out the boat that is burning, hosing down the dock and surrounding boats could certainly help prevent the fire from spreading, or at least buy enough time for the professionals to show up.
 
Tell me about the guy who got OFF the boat at 0:16 after it was on fire and then stood on the dock taking photos at 0:29 before disappearing off camera at 0:33.
 
Problem with pushing boats out of their slip is, if someone takes the boat in tow, it likely becomes a salvage job.

There was a similar situation where a fireman untied a yacht at it's dock (the house was on fire) to save it from catching on fire. A Sea Tow operator took the vessel in tow and because there was not a capt aboard they called it a salvage, and when it was classified a salvage a percentage of the value of the yacht was the bill.
I don't remember the whole story, I just remember thinking insult to injury. So you have top be careful what you do, you could be held liable.
 
Since everyone is saying what they would do I'll add my .02. From the look of what was going on I would've made the 911 call then been pounding on ALL the boats on that dock making sure anyone on board was up and aware of the situation. I'm guessing by that time it would've been too late to try and push any nearby boats out. I would've considered it. I'm still on the fence if that would be a good idea or not. I see both side of the argument.
 
Something is strange about that video. At about 0:22 the fire flares up big time. Engulfing the the upper structure. At 0:28 or so the fire is small with no damage to the upper structure.
 
Hard to say what I would do without being there. If safe to untie boats and move them - I would consider it. Not understanding currents/winds and where I could move it makes it hard to say. I would be reluctant to untie a boat next to it - for the fear of catching on fire myself or an explosion. But further down definitely. That isle is narrow and could make things worse or better.
 
sdarc said:
Something is strange about that video. At about 0:22 the fire flares up big time. Engulfing the the upper structure. At 0:28 or so the fire is small with no damage to the upper structure.
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That was my point. Small fire areound the lower helm. Guy gets off the boat and stands near the stern. Guy disappears for a bit. Guy comes back into frame, takes some photos, fire gets bigger, Guy disappears. Looks like arson to me.
 
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Hard to say what the guy did. It looked to me like he was talking on the phone at least some of the time. "Taking pictures" could have been just that, or texting, or scrolling through the contacts list trying to find the harbormaster's number. You never know.
 
src said:
Hard to say what the guy did. It looked to me like he was talking on the phone at least some of the time. "Taking pictures" could have been just that, or texting, or scrolling through the contacts list trying to find the harbormaster's number. You never know.
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Ok, I'll bite on that.

Question:

Would you leave if it was your boat and you wanted to keep it/save it?
 
Try to put it out, and contact someone who could put it out. What else?

There was quite a lag between the first flareup and the guy coming out. It might have been that he was asleep and came out as soon as he noticed, but the fact that he was fully dressed and didn't seem to be in a total panic make me think that he might have been trying to deal with it himself at first, and only exited once he realized it wasn't working.

Total, 100% assumption on my part, giving the guy a HUGE benefit of the doubt. But it fits what I saw in the video. I'm really curious what he was doing on the port side of the cockpit before he left the boat. Could that be where the battery switches are for that boat? Basically, it's VERY hard to tell what actually happened, between the size of the video and the time compression, there's a LOT that we could be missing or misreading.
 
I would have a lot of questions for him....and so would the VA SP. Security tapes don't lie! Coming off the boat, then going back, then stopping to take pic's (unless he's on the phone with FD) something is amiss
 
Marina is fine.
 
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