No injuries were reported but several eyebrows were raised after a boat was spotted engulfed in flames in the Indian Arm fjord near Deep Cove on Saturday.
“I’ve been boating for 30 years, and I’ve never seen a fire like that,” said resident Terry Hewitt, who watched the fire unfold from his Brighton Beach home.
A Canadian Coast Guard spokesperson said they received a report of the boat just after noon on Jan. 18, with crew from the Kitsilano Base responding to the scene.
Two people were safely removed from the burning 40-foot pleasure boat by another vessel nearby, and no injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is unknown.
The burning vessel continued to smoulder, the spokesperson said, and had visible flames until it sank around 3:40 p.m. Saturday.
It was reported that the vessel had 1,200 litres of diesel on board before the fire occurred, and a small sheen of oil was visible in the area after sinking.
Pictures and videos sent to the North Shore News show a high blaze on the boat with thick, black smoke rising into the air.
After seeing the fire, Hewitt took out his phone to take a video.
He recalled worrying about the safety of the passengers as he watched flames shoot into the sky from the middle section of the boat.
“That was just a huge sigh of relief when we saw that they were off [the boat],” Hewitt said.
Others were surprised by the smoke and fire as well, including paddleboarder Sieneke Toering.
She was out for a paddle along Indian Arm Saturday afternoon when she saw light, grey smoke appear in the sky. Toering saw the action unfold as the light smoke started to turn black, and then flames engulfed the vessel.
Toering is a member of the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue, and quickly texted a colleague to provide information about what she was seeing.
“I was at a fair distance, and I could see full flames engulfing the vessel,” Toering said. “It was quite something.”
RCMSAR was not tasked to the emergency, a spokesperson from the search and rescue team said in an email Tuesday.
Equipment is now in place to address and monitor any pollution that might result from the diesel, a Coast Guard spokesperson told The Canadian Press.
The vessel owner is working with their insurance to determine a course of action, and “the Canadian Coast Guard is continuing communication with the owner to ensure an appropriate response.”
Marine search and rescue incidents in B.C. can be reported by calling the regional 24-hour emergency line at 1-800-567-5111. You can also call *16 on your phone – a number you can dial in case you don’t have great service in the area – to connect to the Canadian Coast Guard for emergencies and incidents involving marine safety, pollution or navigation.
“[It’s] basically the 911 from on the water,” Toering said. “You can report anything that you see, and they can tell you if it’s already been reported or not, but better to over report than under report.”
Abby Luciano is the Indigenous and civic affairs reporter for the North Shore News. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
