Three 40-foot boats on Granville Island marina engulfed in fire

Three boats docked on the Granville Island Marina caught fire early morning on Sunday, the Vancouver Fire Rescue Services confirmed.

Assistant Chief Ken Gemmill told CityNews that just after 2 am, three approximately 40-foot vessels were found “fully involved” in fire, with one of them sinking due to “extensive damage.”

There were no injuries reported, but authorities are treating the incident as suspicious.

Fire at Granville Island boat dock. Approx 2:20 a.m. pic.twitter.com/U1NFMNEwE7

— Jan Bevilacqua (@_JBevilacqua) February 12, 2023

“We don’t know how it happened, but the VPD are treating this as suspicious right now because of the time and nature of the incident,” Gemmill said.

He adds that Fire responders were able to “swiftly extinguish it” from land, and was able to put out the flames without damaging other nearby vessels.

Early morning fire at Marina in False Creek.
3 boats in total.
No known injuries.
Great job by our @VanFireRescue @IAFF18 using our 2 Fireboats to stop this from spreading further. pic.twitter.com/5N92ypvFo0

— Karen Fry (@Karen_Fry) February 12, 2023

 

“The fire load in the marina is pretty high with the extensive number of boats but we are lucky to have the Fire boats respond quickly, limiting the extent of damage” Gemmill said. “There were six or seven boats that were affected but only slightly, but the three vessels that caught fire were full losses.”

There were initial reports of two people missing, but were later accounted for, he added.

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“That marina does not have a lot of full-time inhabitants, but there were a couple of people just hanging out at the time. Luckily, they managed to untie and get out of the way when they saw the fire,” Gemmill said.

After the fire was extinguished, responders had to retrieve the sunken boat, and call on Spill Response to clean up the fuel, oil, and other potentially hazardous materials in the water.

All hands were on deck as fire investigators, the VPD, and coast guards were also on scene to investigate the incident, and mitigate further damages.