Bad weekend for boats in the PNW

It would be nice to know "the rest of the story" about the spark that ignited "nearby" fuel can. I would think there would have to be raw fuel right by the spark or a heavy collection of fumes already around the bilge pump. It would be nice to know. Maybe we sometimes ignore the smell of gas on our boats when we should assume that smelling gas means its pooled up or pooled up fumes are somewhere that they shouldn't be. I think that if the fuel and fuel storage system is proper, we'd not smell gas fumes, period. But, maybe I'm wrong.
 
The boat in Port Orchard was at the Yacht Club, in a boathouse and had sunk Sunday. Yesterday it was raised, and floating with no problems, when the owner stepped aboard with abilge pump and plugged it in. The spark exploded the fuel vapor in the air, sending 3-4 people to the hospital with minor injuries, and causing the boat to sink again.

Now the EPA is involved, and it is part of the bearucratic world of government oversight. I walked by around 5:00 yesterday to check on a friends boat that is on the same dock (he's in Arizona right now). Talked with the Commodore of the club. Everything is under control. It looked like the crane was in the air earlier today and picking the boat up again, probably to go on a barge for removal and disposal.

As far as minor damage to the boathouse- all the sideing will need to be repaired / replaced. They are so lucky that there wasn't much of a fire, and that people on the dock had it out in minutes. Fire in an aluminum skinned boathouse can get out of hand very quickly, and travel to neighboring boathouses.

There was shrapnel propelled through the aluminum siding of the boathouse, and through the aluminum siding of the neighboring boathouse that was lodged into the hull of the classic Stephens within it. That plus a few windows on nearby boathouses broken was the extent of the damage.

Scary for those that were there, stupid of the boat owner.
 
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