SEATTLE — Seattle Fire tackled a two-alarm boat fire along the shores of Lake Union on Wednesday.
According to the Seattle Fire Department, crews responded to a fire on a boat moored near the 2100 block of Westlake Avenue N. just before 4:30 p.m.
Crews reported a fire in an approximately 40-foot boat that was moored in a covered marina. The roof of the enclosed marina also caught fire.
People who were near the marina described hearing a large explosion before seeing the flames rise through the roof of the dock.
“And we felt a ginormous explosion. The windows kind of came in a little bit,” said Ari Sherr, who works next door. “And at first we thought it was just a boat that hit the marina, but it was quite substantial.”
Several people with boats at the marina rushed down to help anyone on the dock.
“We were down there with garden hoses for a while. A couple of boats were involved [with helping], and the roof ended up getting fully engulfed as well,” said Seth, whose boat was at the end of the dock.
Crews upgraded the incident to a 2-alarm fire as Seattle Fire land crews worked to put water on the boat fire, alongside Seattle PD Harbor Patrol and Fireboat crews working to extinguish the flames on the roof of the dock.
Just after 5 p.m., SFD reported that the boat had sustained significant damage and sunk. The rest of the fire was extinguished shortly after.
According to SFD, firefighters successfully protected adjacent boats from catching fire and searched them to confirm the entire marina was evacuated, confirming that there were no injuries.
Crews on the fireboat and rescue boat deployed flotation booms around the sunken vessel to prevent fuel and debris from spreading further into Lake Union. Later that evening, the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific NW reported that their pollution spill teams, alongside Ecology Washington, were responding for “salvage operations” to contain any pollution.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
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