LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – 26 boats were damaged, 11 of them destroyed, and two people were injured in a fire at the Las Vegas Boat Harbor over the weekend, according to Boating Lake Mead.
“It was horrific because we’re looking down saying, ‘There goes our business.’ It looked like the entire thing was fire,” said harbor owner Gail Kaiser. “In actuality, it was a small portion, but it was scary.”
According to the National Park Service, the fire broke out at Las Vegas Boat Harbor Marina around 12:30 a.m. on Sunday.
“It’s pretty devastating,” said Kaiser.
Kaiser said people were evacuated from houseboats and cruisers as the flames quickly spread along the R and I wings of the dock.
“My daughter and I, we started evacuating people. Boulder City Police were already here, and we got with them, and they started evacuating people,” she said. “If it was a Tuesday night, maybe so many people wouldn’t be here, but on a Saturday night, especially with the nice weather and the warm finally getting here, people were here using their boats, and they do spend the nights here.”
On Monday, fire investigators deployed underwater cameras to assess the damage and debris below the surface, still trying to determine how the fire sparked.
Meanwhile, Kaiser and boat owners are anxiously waiting to see the damage for themselves, but they’re not allowed on the damaged wings until the fire investigation is complete.
“It leaves you with so much unknown because we’re anxious to get out there and get started cleaning up, getting to assess what’s there for us, what kind of structural damage there is, we don’t know, and we won’t know until we can get out there and start our process,” said Kaiser.
Most of the marina is still open to the public, except for the R and I wings of the dock, which are taped off and being monitored by park rangers.
Kaiser said two people had minor injuries from the fire – one was burned, while the other was a firefighter who refused treatment for smoke inhalation.
If your boat was damaged in the fire, Boating Lake Mead management says to fill out the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) self-reporting form. Then, submit the form to Boating Lake Mead here. They will forward all of the forms to the National Park Service (NPS) and NDOW for processing.
You should also call your insurance company and report the fire damage to start the claim process.
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