By DAVID JOYNER
Staff writer
(Courtesy of Gloucester Daily Times)
A stubborn, two-alarm fire gutted a fishing boat docked alongside the Jodrey State Fish Pier last night.
Firefighters spent about two hours rooting out and extinguishing a fire aboard the fishing vessel Laura. The boat was still smoldering about 9:30 p.m., as a clean-up operation began.
“It was extremely stubborn,” said Gloucester Fire Chief Barry McKay, who noted the blaze had festered inside a machine room in the boat’s bow. There was no word last night on what caused the fire.
No injuries were reported. Joe DiMaio, identified as the Laura’s owner, was unavailable for comment.
Police Chief James Marr, whose officers provided security on the fish pier, said the Laura had been tied up there for a couple of days and apparently was undergoing maintenance.
Marr said the fire was reported about 7:30 p.m., and there was “no indication” anyone was aboard the boat at the time.
The fire chief said his crews arrived to find heavy smoke and a working fire, which had spread through the crew’s quarters and into the Laura’s pilot house.
Firefighters attacked the blaze from the boat’s stern, McKay said, and worked their way into the crew’s quarters below decks.
They later backed out and attacked the blaze from the exterior.
Fire crews, concerned about fuel aboard the vessel, sprayed a foam that helped diminish the chances of the fuel catching.
The Gloucester crews were assisted in their efforts by one of two special-purpose foam trucks kept in Essex County, this one maintained by the Danvers Fire Department.
Firefighters blasted the foam through a porthole, until they could return below decks to find and knock down the blaze in the machine room.
McKay said another concern had been the amount of water firefighters were pouring onto the boat. If unchecked, he said, the vessel could list or sink.
The Fire Department was working with the U.S. Coast Guard last night to put pumps aboard the boat to help remove some of the water.
The fire at the fish pier was a spectacle. Though police blocked traffic to the fish pier, cars gathered across the harbor’s northern channel, at Rowe’s Wharf, pointing their headlights toward the blaze.
Temperatures hovered above freezing, and wind gusts pushed around plumes of smoke and hunks of foam. Patches of foam floated on the harbor, collecting alongside the fish pier.
Mayor John Bell was at the scene, standing with Harbormaster James Caulkett and other public safety officials.
“It’s always a tragedy to see a vessel taken out of service,” said Bell. “It’s my understanding that the owner has put a lot of time, energy and investment into this vessel. We’re just hopeful it’s not a complete loss. The loss of a vessel is good for no one in this port.”
