‘Catastrophe’ avoided: Fire put out on a boat in downtown Beaufort Sunday morning
A boat docked at a marina in Downtown Beaufort was damaged after it caught fire Sunday morning.
The City of Beaufort/Town of Port Royal Fire Department responded to a call about a fire around 4:20 a.m. Sunday at the Downtown Marina in Beaufort, according to the fire department’s Facebook page. When they arrived, they found a fire had started on a 22-foot boat.
The firefighters set up an attack line using 1 3/4 inch hose along the dock, according to fire department spokesperson Ross Vezin. Firefighters were able to get a handle on the blaze within 5 minutes of arriving.
The helm of the boat seemed to suffer the brunt of the damages, but the benches located directly in front of and behind the center console also appeared to have been burned, according to photos included in the post.
The fire did not spread, and there were no injuries or other boats damaged, Vezin said.
Beaufort Mayor Stephen Murray, who has docked his boat at the marina for four years and owns a neighboring boat, said he is grateful for the Water Festival staff who called and reported the fire and for the firefighters’ fast action.
“Generally, in center consoles like that, the fuel tank is under the console, and I’m not sure how much fuel he had on board, but if the tank would have lit off, I think it would have been a much greater property catastrophe and environmental catastrophe in our river,” Murray said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Vezin said.
This story was originally published July 18, 2021 at 10:52 AM.
