A fire that broke out Tuesday afternoon at Babylon Boat on Long Island, N.Y., has destroyed four boats and sent one person to the hospital.
“My brother-in-law was hurt,” the boatyard’s owner, James Krill, told the New York Daily News. Krill said his brother-in-law, Keith Newell, suffered second- and third-degree burns to his arms and legs.
Michael Goodyear told News 12 that he and a friend saw the smoke from a few blocks away and raced over to see what it was. “As soon as we got there we saw there was three boats on fire, then a series of explosions and like loud thumps,” said Goodyear.
Bill Deak told the news channel that he saw surveillance video that captured the scene as it happened. He said Newell was working on his boat at the time.
“He goes underneath, inside the engine department and all you see is flames,” says Deak. “You see him come jumping out of the hatch of the cabin and within 20 seconds, the boat is completely engulfed in flames.”
Four fire departments responded to the scene.
Babylon Fire Chief Michael Golub says it took them just under an hour to get it under control. “We don’t have wind but it’s hard because there’s gas — the tank — and that’s hard to put out. Fiberglas is also hard to put out,” he told the station.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
