FORT WORTH, Texas — A boat at the Silver Lake Marina on Grapevine Lake caught fire and exploded Sunday, injuring one person and damaging at least nine other boats.
Grapevine Fire Department Chief Darrell Brown called the fire an accident, but said investigators are still trying to determine whether an electrical problem or some other malfunction sparked the flames.
The fire started on one boat at about 1 p.m., Brown said. Witnesses tell WFAA that boat exploded and the fire spread to other boats in neighboring slips.
"We just heard this huge boom," said Cameron Story, who estimates he was about 50 yards from the explosion. "It was bad."
"You could feel the heat coming off of it," added Ella Taylor, who was with Story.
Medics took one person to the hospital. Brown said that person was aboard the boat when it exploded.
Witnesses say the blast threw the man into the boat slip's canopy. Two people who know the man told WFAA he escaped the explosion with a broken leg.
"Everyone was just yelling," Taylor said. "You just see all of the electrical stuff - all the lights around the boat - just start popping individually. The smoke was covering the sun."
The black plume soared over Grapevine Lake and northeastern Tarrant County for hours Sunday. Brown said at least four boats burned beyond repair and at least six more sustained damage.
"There's hundreds of thousands of dollars - if not millions - worth of boats down there," Brown said. "It could've been a really bad day and (the firefighters) kept it from getting there."
But the fight was difficult and "labor intensive," Brown noted. Temperatures approached record highs Sunday.
First responders at the docks ran more than 2,000 feet of firehose to reach the nearest hydrants, which are on Fairway Drive near the marina's entrance. Brown said that distance is a common challenge at marinas, since fire hydrants need to be above the lake level at all times to prevent backflow contamination.
Firefighters on the docks and firefighters in boats also had to be careful not to spray each other. Brown said one first responder fell in the lake Sunday, though he continued working after his crewmates pulled him from the water.
"It's not uncommon," Brown said, making reference the frequency of fires at marinas in North Texas. "It's just a bad day when it happens."
Crews cut loose several boats from their slips to protect them from the fire. Most of the fuel burned off the water, but Brown said his crews put down booms to contain any hazardous materials still floating on the surface.
"It's just a lot," Brown said.