Boat burns in Sandusky

SANDUSKY — A boat burned at its mooring on Sandusky's west end on Saturday. Just before 1 p.m., first responders received a report of a boat with smoke coming through its vents in the first block of Huron Street. That is just to the west of the coal dock. All three Sandusky fire stations were dispatched to the scene. One crew was sent to the Shelby Street boat ramp to bring the department's fire boat to the scene. The boat in question, a 63-foot Gulf Star sailboat called the Island Dancer, was found to have smoke and flames erupting from it. The boat was moored close to the marina's entrance at the northeast corner of the property. Firefighters pulled a 2.5-inch hose from fire engine No. 921 near the shore more than 600 feet to the boat, according to a Sandusky fire incident report. The department's fire boat then arrived on scene and began pumping water onto the burning boat from its deck gun. After battling the fire for some time, a concern arose that the boat's fuel could become involved in the fire so firefighters switched from water to foam. Margaretta fire was called in for mutual aid. Eventually, the decision was made to also call in off-duty Sandusky personnel. The fire was declared out at 3:30 p.m., more than two-and-a-half hours after the alarm was raised. An investigation revealed that someone stayed on the boat Friday night with the air conditioning running, and the occupant left at about 11 a.m. The port side air conditioning was left running. The boat owner, docked to the south of the Island Dancer, disconnected shore power to the vessel when he noticed smoke coming through the vents. Before the fire, the boat had a value of about $250,000 and $25,000 in contents. After the fire, the boat was declared a total loss. An adjacent boat suffered some smoke damage.