Wednesday, January 21, 2015

POST #1000 Boat Fire near Burrard Bridge

Update: Here is a photo that my friend Sean shared. His boat was in the same marina.

He states : "In case you want to know what remains of the boat that burned at Burrard Marina on Tuesday night - it was refloated and hauled out to Granville Island Boat Yard. Here's what is left:"

 It *was* a Beneteau 36. Now it's probably little more than a spare keel...
~Sean
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My condolences to the owners. :( Very Sad! So glad no one was hurt! Hopefully this is a wakeup call that they need a way better system down there. If it had been windy that night it could have been a much different story. ~ Tina
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Today is my 1000th post on the Tina Winterlik blog. http://tinawinterlik.blogspot.ca

I was looking for something special to blog about but I sure wasn't expecting this.

Last night, there were about 14 emergency vehicles screaming up and down our streets, going around in circles...looked like a lot of confusion.

You see there was a boat on fire in the marina down under Burrard Bridge, near Harmony park. You may have heard they closed the Coast Guard Office there despite huge protests.




Well they got the fire out, but I tell you I was nervous at first because at first there were reports it was near Granville Island near Fisherman's Wharf and I was worried about where I work.



Here's my tweets trying to figure out what was going one.




While all this was going on I madly phoned my friend but couldn't get through so texted him and this is what he said.  He's updated me since.

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Hello all

Some of you might have already heard the news that there was a boat fire at Burrard Marina last night. Sounds like the fire started shortly after 10 PM, my phone started going nuts with phone calls, texts and e-mails shortly thereafter.

I had my people on-scene giving me reports shortly after. (yes, I have "people"...! well, fellow boaters at Burrard Marina). One lives in an apartment with a good view overlooking the marina, and was able to confirm the location of the fire. (nowhere near my boat "Hale Pau Hana", thank goodness!) A second was able to scoot down to the marina, met with the security guard, and got more details.

Fire boat, multiple fire trucks, and the hovercraft "Siyay" were all on scene. I received updates from Port Metro Vancouver's Operations Centre as well.

The boat was a Beneteau 36, "Allons-y" at slip N-7 (east side, nearer to Granville Island.) The boat burned to the waterline, and later sank. The mast bent 90 degrees, collapsed onto the dock, and is currently holding the sunken hulk in place. Oil-spill booms were deployed to try and contain the floating cinders and sheen of spilled diesel fuel.

Two neighbouring boats were moved away, one just in the nick of time, it's showing severe heat damage with melted plastic windows and singed canvas, and blistered fibreglass.

I was there at 7:45 AM to survey the scene. Some pics are posted here:
(Sorry link doesn't want to work.)


As for cause of the blaze... too early to tell.

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Here's a few of Sean's Smith pics, check out the link for the rest
Fire and heat damage - melted plastic windows, charred canvas, fibre glass blistered and cracked.
Photo by Sean Smith © 2015


Neighbouring boats must have been moved in a hurry. Photo by Sean Smith © 2015


Mast is bent 90 degrees right where it goes into the water.  Photo by Sean Smith © 2015
To give you an idea of exactly where it was my friend made this map. 



Here are a few news links



http://www.vancouversun.com/video+Boat+fire+Burrard+Civic+Marina+False+Creek/10748035/story.html




Vancouver Fire crews fight a boat on fire at Burrard Civic Marina. Coast Guard was also in attendance but took them 45 minutes to respond. If they did not close the Kits Coast Guard Station then rescue crews would have been on scene in seconds.

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