Boats damaged at Stonington boat yard fire

STONINGTON, Conn. (WTNH)-- Firefighters arrived at Dodson's boat yard just minutes after a smoky fire was reported, but they couldn't start fighting it for about a half an hour.

Chief Jeffrey Hoadley from Stonington Borough Fire said, "when we arrived, the power lines were down over the boats. We're on top of the boats, so we couldn't do anything until the power was turned off."

After that, they worked quickly. The boat yard sits right up against the train tracks so 25,000 volts of power had to be cut off to Amtrak, as well as most of Stonington Borough.

This left four trains and 2,000 passengers waiting while they fought the fire, a ladder truck extending over the tracks.

Workers at Dog Watch Cafe were setting up for lunch when the power lines caught fire.

"You could see the lines just going down. They were just snapping from the fire. Pretty scary site. Dangerous too. Oh absolutely," said Tony Gilruth from Dog Watch Cafe.

Fire crews were able to contain most of the damage to five boats, which the Chief says were destroyed by the fast moving flames. Other boats suffered minor damage.

Fortunately no firefighters were injured. There were even more concerns than these downed power lines. There was also a real fear of explosions.

"You know there's propane tanks down there. There's gasoline tanks," said Chief Hoadley.
    
DEEP was also on hand to monitor water runoff, which went right into storm drains below the boats.

"Gasoline, diesel fuel, anything else that was washed out of those boats, is now probably headed to the harbor," said Chief Hoadley.

DEEP says there are no major environmental concerns. About three hours after the fire started the first of the delayed Amtrak trains began rolling again.