Fire destroys three pleasure craft on Lake Union

The hollering started about 5:40 a.m., according to Ron Sperry, who lives aboard a 55-foot yacht at the Seattle Marina on north Lake Union where three pleasure boats burned yesterday.

"Fire on the dock! Fire on the dock!"

Sperry shot out of bed when he heard the frantic shouts, echoes of the Seattle Marina fire he narrowly escaped 14 months, six days ago. "But who's counting?"


		Noel Berube / Special to the P-I
	Quick response by Seattle's Harbor Patrol boat was credited with preventing an even worse fire. No one was injured yesterday, authorities said.

That earlier fire caused $10 million in damage, flames spreading from boat to boat, destroying 35. It started just two boats away from Sperry's. Though he was not hurt, the fire was a death blow to the 54-year-old yacht broker's business -- 28 of his boats burned.

Yesterday's fire ravaged a 42-foot fiberglass yacht owned by Richard Brookbush, who had moved from Edmonds on June 10 to live aboard his boat.

Brookbush, 51, said last night he wasn't sure what woke him up, but when he did, glass was already shattering from the heat.

"I ran into the salon and turned around to see the whole back end of my boat in flames," he said. "If I had woken up 30 seconds later, I wouldn't have woken up."

Brookbush escaped by jumping into the water.

From his brother's Edmonds home last night, Brookbush said he was relieved to find out that the fire did not start on his boat.

He said insurance likely will pay to replace the boat, but some items are irreplaceable.

"I lost everything I owned," he said. "I had all my property on the boat."

A collection of more than 100 signed first editions of books by Mickey Spillane and Ray Bradbury collected over 25 years may be among the hardest to part with, he said.

No one was injured in yesterday's fire.

The two other boats were not occupied.

Nick LeClercq, owner of Seattle Marina, said the Seattle Police Department's quick response prevented kind of catastrophic damage that occurred in the fire last year.

"What saved the day is the Harbor Patrol boat No. 4," LeClercq said. "They were here within 10 minutes. They came around the corner with their cannons blazing. They were like the cavalry.

"The result is three boats ruined rather than 50."

As he stared at the blackened rubble that was the galley of one of the burned ships, Seattle Fire Department investigator Tony Little said fiberglass burns incredibly quickly. A small flame can sweep from bow to stern in five minutes or less on fiberglass boats such as the ones that burned yesterday, he said.

"The same (fast-spreading fire) is true of a house, but on a boat you've got limited egress," Little said.

The boats explode like plastic and gasoline and propane -- cause that's what they are," LeClercq said.

Lt. Sue Stangl, a spokeswoman for the Seattle Fire Department, said firefighters had the fire doused by 6:30 a.m.

She said the fire caused $1 million in damage to the boats and the dock.

The fire was ruled accidental, caused by an electrical problem in one of the unoccupied boats.

John Baxter, the marina manager, said investigators on the scene told him a small electric clock onboard the 34-foot Tollycraft where the fire broke out, was to blame.

"It was the only thing that was running in the area of the boat," Baxter said. "It was the clock or the outlet or both.

"Clocks are dangerous, especially the cheap ones, they have a tendency to go bad, and they'll just sit there and cook."

Seattle fire investigators looked into the possibility that electrical appliances on one of the boats had caused last year's fire, but in the end, they were not able to say what started the blaze.

With his border collie Buddy at his side as he watched the mop-up, Sperry, who has lived at the Seattle Marina for 15 years, said the back-to-back marina fires are more than he could believe.

"We're not supposed to have this many fires," he said. "This is crazy."

He said with last year's fire still fresh in his memory, the warning cries yesterday morning seemed especially terrifying.

"When you're on your own boat and somebody starts screaming 'Fire!' your heart just goes into your throat."

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