(UPDATE: May 15, 2012) The cause of Monday's boat fire is still unknown as of Tuesday.
"It might have been an electrical problem with the boat and that's what we're focusing on in the investigation," said Louis DiMeglio, chief of the New Rochelle fire department.
Check back for more updates as they become available.
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New Rochelle firefighters were able to extinguish a boat fire before it reached the fuel lines on the dock of the Municipal Marina this afternoon.
Firefighters got the call at about 2:40 p.m. after a fire ignited on a Luhrs sports fishing boat. No injuries were reported, but the boat’s interior was charred beyond recognition by the time the fire was knocked down.
The cause of the fire was unclear Monday.
“It was tied up to the dock and we noticed smoke, so we called the fire departments,” said Sal Gugliara, harbormaster at the New Rochelle Municipal Marina. “It just caught fire. I’m not sure why. The fire department is investigating. But it’s a total loss. We were able to save it before it sank, so there’s no environmental issues. No fuel in the water.”
Gugliara said workers tried to control before firefighters arrived at the scene. The boat, was close to the dock’s fuel lines, according to Gugliaro. Workers managed to cutoff the fuel line before it reached the dock.
“We were lucky with the weather, because the wind was blowing in the opposite direction,” Gugliara said.
Gugliara said the owners of the boat recently put in a lot of work renovating it and were very distraught Monday afternoon.
“It’s a real loss for them,” Gugliara said. “They were really looking forward to a nice season.”
Gugliara said the owners of the boat stayed on it almost every night.
“If they had been on their boat when it happened, it could’ve been a lot worse,” Gugliara said.
Gugliara, who’s been a harbor master for 11 years, said he’s been through nine boat fires in his career. Three of those fires were at the Municipal Marina.
“This was pretty bad,” Gugliara said. “We are lucky that we were able to save this one before it sank.”
A tanker from Northeast Environmental, a cleanup company based out of Mamaroneck, could be seen cleaning the dirty water out of the boat Monday evening.
“From there, they’ll call the insurance company and have the insurance adjuster come,” Gugliara said. “It’s definitely a total loss, they’ll just need to figure out what to do with it.”
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
