Alabama dock fire

[Old Ironmaker]

Massive fire in northern Alabama Marina. All smaller crafts. 8 lives lost of which 4 were children. We have hundreds maybe thousands of these typr of small craft Marinas in Ontario. The boats are jammed together so tightly fire jumps from vessel to vessel well, like wildfire. Cruisers, cuddy's and house boats have 1 way in and 1 way out in most cases. It makes me think about several friends that basically live on their boats all summer. If you overnight on your boat do you have a fire escape plan? 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/01/28/alabama-boat-fire-dock-cleanup-scottsboro-marina-underway/4596284002/

Edited January 30, 2020 by Old Ironmaker

[DRIFTER_016]

My buddy used to live on his 36' Hatteras all year long down at Pt. Credit Marina. 

[lew]

This was a horrible tragedy but received very little coverage on the news, yet the crash with Kobe Bryant is still talked about constantly on both Canadian & US stations.

Sad when similar terrible things receive such different amounts of interest.

[pics]

Scary stuff.. and yeah it can happen anywhere.  Surrounded by water may give a false sense of security.  We have boaters living all year round in Hamilton too. I'm surprised that I haven't seen any out of their slips.. only commercial crafts are moving around..

[npt1]

Terrible tragedy,  just imagine the amount of flammables in the immediate area, gasoline, propane,  and all the combustible material 

to go along with the flames from all the  water craft near by.

Escaping flames on some large boats must be a problem,  smaller windows and doorways for example.

Very sad for the families indeed.

[Crimsongulf]

The word on the street is that it was electrical in nature, probably a space heater and or overload on the shore power station.  The docks were old and pressure treated pine.  Once it got started it was over