Logistics woes slowed response to yacht club fire

A fast-moving blaze at the historic Seattle Yacht Club's marina Tuesday was fraught with tactical complications and a communication lag that hampered firefighters as flames destroyed 13 boats and severely damaged as many as 10 others.

Damage is estimated in the millions of dollars.

The Portage Bay blaze again raised concerns among boat owners over an oft-debated 1976 policy that keeps the Fire Department's main firefighting vessel on Elliott Bay.

It took the city's largest fireboat -- the Chief Seattle -- 65 minutes to travel from Station 5 on Elliott Bay near Colman Dock to the Portage Bay scene, fire officials said. The route included a time-consuming but necessary trip through the Ballard Locks.

Therefore, the Police Department's Harbor Patrol Unit boats from Lake Union, which have only limited firefighting equipment, were the first emergency vessels on scene -- and even those boats arrived late because of an apparent glitch in an automated paging system.

The result meant that the police boat, Patrol 4, responded to the fire at 7 p.m. -- about 20 minutes after the fire was reported.

"The earlier you catch a fire, the less water you have to put on it and the better your chances are," Harbor Patrol Lt. Richard Schweitzer said.

Yesterday, police and fire officials agreed that fire and police personnel should share first-responder responsibilities on Seattle's lakes, something emergency service commanders have recommended over the years. However, the effort has fallen victim to politics and short funds.

"We would all love to have firefighters in Lake Union," Assistant Fire Chief Greg Dean said. "But with the resources that we presently have ... we do the best with what we've got."

Working under a cold drizzle yesterday, fire investigators began trying to determine what caused the blaze. Meanwhile, devastated boat owners said losing their cherished vessels was like losing a family member.

"Emotionally, you get pretty attached to your boat," said Tom Foti, who, after 12 years on a waiting list, moved his 48-foot Tollycraft, Special F/X, to the club's marina only a week and a half ago. Yesterday, the charred boat lay submerged in Portage Bay.

Contractors using cranes prepared to lift several of the sunken hulls to barges floating dockside, where fire investigators waited to sift through the debris.

Dean met yesterday with boat owners at the 110-year-old yacht club, explaining that the cause of the three-alarm blaze likely won't be known until tomorrow at the earliest.

"We're making the assumption that a central boat was the cause. Now we have to start narrowing our scope to make sure," he said.

Yacht club officials meeting in the clubhouse on East Hamlin Street in Montlake first noticed the blaze on Dock Three at about 6:40 p.m.

At that time, only the Shell Lee, a 46-foot wooden Chris Craft in slip No. 15, was burning, said Dick Johnson, the club's vice commodore. The boat's owners, Bob and Athena Anderson, were in California, yacht club officials said.

Johnson and general manager Jim Torrence raced outside, grabbing dockside fire extinguishers to battle the blaze, but flames shot from the vessel, igniting the moorage's roof.

"When it got to the roof, it just exploded," Johnson said. "Within three to five minutes, the whole thing was on fire."

The blaze spread quickly to neighboring boats and through the wooden moorage, setting wood and fiberglass hulls ablaze and shooting flames fueled by gasoline and diesel.

In all, about a third of the boats moored at Dock Three were destroyed or damaged, Johnson said. About 18 slips in the roughly 260-slip marina also were damaged, he said.

If the police boats had received notice of the fire earlier, damage may not have been as extensive, Schweitzer of the Harbor Patrol said.

"I don't know whether it was a glitch in the electronics, or what," he said. Fire Lt. Sue Stangl said the police boats were called at 6:41 p.m., but dispatchers noticed that the boats were not on the scene at 7 p.m. and put out another call.

Six police boats -- only one with significant firefighting capabilities -- were on the scene by 7:05 p.m., Schweitzer said.

Shoreside fire units arrived at the yacht club about 6:48 p.m., hampered by the narrow streets in Montlake and a hydrant tapped into an undersized water main that provided poor water pressure, fire officials said. They ran hoses across an expansive lawn to reach the dock as the fire spread. Firefighters cut lines of several vessels, setting them adrift.

Meanwhile, members of the Queen City Yacht Club across Portage Bay traveled to the burning dock in a small boat to help move other vessels.

"They saved my boat and about eight others," said John VanDuzor, whose 40-foot Viking suffered $40,000 in fire damage to its starboard side. "They took a lot of chances."

When Patrol 4 arrived shortly after 7 p.m., its crew had to wait until firefighters left the docks so they could unleash streams from two monitors that can pump about 4,000 gallons per minute. The powerful streams could have pushed flames into the firefighters or even killed them with a direct blast, Schweitzer said.

The Chief Seattle was able to pump 7,500 gallons per minute, helping to fully control and douse the blaze, Stangl said. The fireboat's crew also used its full capacity of 800 gallons of foam retardant on the main blaze and fuel fires on the water, she said.

Despite the fire's challenges, club members lauded Tuesday's firefighting efforts.

Club member Craig Halverson said consideration should be given to adding fire personnel and equipment in Lake Union. "I know it's an economic issue. But this should be something the city considers."

P-I reporter Lewis Kamb can be reached at 206-615-1246 or lewiskamb@seattlepi.com

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