Safety Check

[BassNJake]

Wanted to share something that happened over the 4th of july weekend. Sorry about the length in advance.

 

I get to the marina to launch and I can smell what seems like a tire or plastic burning.

The marina has a campground with a lot semi- permanent campers and they often burn stuff over night so I figured it was one of them.

I launch the boat and start tossing my frog down the shoreline and now i can see a fire by a camper and thought must have been those idiots burning the tire.

As I get closer I can see better and it looks like the fire is between a SUV and the camper and I'm thinking there's a recipe for disaster.

Now , I see that there is fire dripping down and know that isnt right.

I beach the boat run up on shore and sure as ****, the back quarter of the camper is on fire.

I run to the front and start banging on the door, I hear a lady yell JESUS, I'm coming.

I tell her the camper is on fire and she gives me an old fire extinguisher that she says she thinks is broken.

There is no top, no trigger no nothing just a tube sticking out the top ... like a cheeze whiz can.

I press the top and the retardant flies everywhere, I managed to put the fire out and turned around to see the woman, what looked like her father, 3 older teen girls and 2 guys looking at me like I don't understand just happened.

 

They were very grateful and pretty much in shock as this was 5:45 in the morning.

The older gentleman mentioned having something rewired and that could have caused the issue.

From the outside I couldnt tell how much damage there was but it seemed like it was caught before any major damage could be done.

 

I tried to launch at my father in-laws that morning too.

However, he had left his boat on the trailer right at the lake so I ended up deciding to put in at the marina instead.

 

I went home and tested our fire extinguishers and smoke detectors and replaced one of each.

I also had to replace the one on my boat.

 

If you haven't checked your safety devices recently, it might be a good time to spend the few minutes and check.

Be safe.

[Ratherbfishing]

Yowza!  Good thing you were there!  Fires can be devastating!  Give yourself a pat on the back!

[TOXIC]

Good deal.  Good Job!!  and Good that you were paying attention.  I launched one brisk fall morning and was running down the lake WOT and out of my blurry eyes, I see a big cabin cruiser out in the middle of nowhere just sitting.  As I pass by I see a plume of black smoke rise out of the back and chuckle to myself thinking that the operator must have really flooded the motor for it to smoke like that.  Then it hit me that a rich burn of fuel would not be black and I wheeled the boat back around just to see flames coming out of the back hatch and a gentleman, his daughter and a Labrador dog getting life vests on and preparing to go into the lake.  I cruised up alongside and yelled at them to get in my boat (20 foot NITRO 929 at the time) and after they tossed the dog across they did and I motored away from their boat.  After watching it for a bit it seemed to be heavy smoke but no more flames so I grabbed my fire extinguisher out of my front compartment and boarded their boat and put out what was left of the wiring in the back of the boat.  It was an electrical short.  I then towed them back to the marina.  

[Redlinerobert]

Good job and great that you were there to save the day.  I just replaced the extinguishers at the office per code.  I carry an extinguisher in the boat, have it in one of the compartments.  I think I may have it mounted somewhere where it's available immediately and simply out of the way.  It would suck to need one and not be able to access it quickly, as every second counts when you do end up needing one. 

 

Again, good job!

[Sam]

Wow, what a story.

They are very fortunate that you were where you were and took immediate action.

Glad to have guys like you on the Forum.

[BassNJake]

19 minutes ago, Sam said:

Wow, what a story.

They are very fortunate that you were where you were and took immediate action.

Glad to have guys like you on the Forum.

I believe others would have done the same thing.

Seems like us fisherpeople are a helping bunch for the most part.