CAMPBELL RIVER -- Two boats were destroyed and a third was damaged in an early-morning marina fire in Campbell River on Monday.
According to Capt. Bruce Holbrook of the Campbell River Fire Department, crews were called to the Discovery Harbour Marina shortly after 6:30 a.m. for a 12-metre vessel on fire.
"When they arrived on site they found two boats were fully involved,” Holbrook said. “What they ended up doing was actually working on the exposure fires to try and keep the boats that were next to the two on fire – keep them from catching on fire.”
He said one person managed to escape the fire but not before trying to extinguish the blaze.
"There was one occupant on the one boat. He tried to fight the fire and managed to get off the boat and was uninjured but we've sent him to hospital just to get him checked out,” he said.
Don Hutchinson has lived aboard a vessel at the Discovery Harbour Marina for the past two years. He was just waking up when he heard a commotion not far from his vessel.
"I heard somebody yelling, ‘Fire, fire fire!’ So I quickly got up, unzipped the flap and looked out to see the flames shooting 10, 20 feet up in the air," Hutchinson said.
He estimates approximately a dozen people live on vessels in the marina.
"Most people are pretty safe but it was blowing pretty hard last night,” he said. “I remember the wind was blowing.”
The damaged vessels have been removed from the marina and towed to a nearby boat yard where they were lifted out of the water.
