Firefighters battle boat blaze in Huntington Harbour
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Local fire crews Wednesday battled a blaze at Huntington Harbour that broke out onboard a 33-foot express cruiser parked in a residential slip, managing to douse the blaze before they reached any nearby infrastructure, officials reported.
Huntington Beach Fire Department Capt. Steve Teasdale said a 911 call came in just before 1 p.m. from someone located on the 16000 block of Cotuit Circle regarding a parked vessel fully engulfed in flames.
“My office is at City Hall, and I could see black smoke billowing all the way from there,” Teasdale said Wednesday evening.
By the time firefighters arrived on scene, members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s Harbor Patrol Division — who maintain a presence in the area and keep an eye out for such incidents — had responded, extinguishing the flames using a boat-mounted water cannon.
Out of caution for the surrounding area, firefighters used hose lines to douse the vicinity to ensure embers were not able to spread or reignite. Lifeguards with the department’s Marine Safety Division were also at the scene, ready to provide a rescue or a medical response if necessary.
“Fortunately [crews] got there in time to get the fire extinguished before it spread any further,” Teasdale said.
The 33-foot boat was a Tiara 3300 yacht named “Nautical Nonsense.” Teasdale confirmed the owner was at the scene and spoke with investigators, confirming that no one was aboard the boat or injured during the incident.
Teasdale said while an investigation has been launched to determine what caused the fire, the damage appears heaviest in the back of the craft.
Huntington Beach resident Eric Bauer, whose parents live on Cotuit Circle, heard about the fire from a friend and came just in time to see investigators aboard the charred and smoking vessel. While he didn’t know the occupants, Bauer said the boat was parked in a slip off of nearby Ensign Circle, across the channel from Cotuit Circle.
