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At Least 8 Dead in Alabama Boat Dock Fire, Officials Say ‘There’s Nothing Left’: An Inferno Tears Through Alabama Boat Dock, Killing 8
(about 3 hours later)
At least eight people were killed in an early morning blaze at a marina in Alabama on Monday, the authorities said. SCOTTSBORO, Ala. — Tim Cuzzort drove fast through the early morning darkness, swerving on winding country roads toward a fire that had lit up a patch of the northern Alabama sky. He had been jolted awake by a phone call, from someone alerting him to a large fire that had ripped through the marina where his daughter, her husband and their children lived in house boats.
Scottsboro Fire Chief Gene Necklaus announced the deaths on Monday afternoon, about 12 hours after the fire tore through Jackson County Park in Scottsboro. The park contains a marina, as well as a walking trail, boat ramps, and fishing and swimming docks on the Tennessee River. But when he arrived, he said, all that remained of the dock on the banks of the Tennessee River was the incinerated ruins of boats, pontoons and the wooden walkway to which they had once been tied. Soon, he learned that his daughter and his grandchildren were among the eight people who were killed.
The fire started in the first couple of slips from the shore, Chief Necklaus said at a news conference earlier in the day. “The whole dock is gone,” Mr. Cuzzort said hours later, his voice quiet and uncertain. “There’s nothing left.”
“It’s a wooden dock, and rather quickly that became impassable,” he said. Boats sank in their spots and others floated off into the lake and sank there, he added. Shortly after midnight, the authorities said, an inferno tore through the dock at Jackson County Park, a recreational area in Scottsboro, Ala., exploding fuel tanks and setting loose flaming vessels that drifted out into the river. Neighbors described seeing nothing but a wall of orange and red through their windows, and the torment of hearing the anguished cries for help.
A witness, Mandy Durham, posted video and photos of the dock engulfed in flames and lighting up the night sky. Investigators swarmed the marina on Monday, as rescue efforts ended and recovery efforts began. It was not clear what caused the fire, which killed eight, injured at least seven and destroyed nearly three dozen boats.
“This was the most sad thing that I have ever seen in my life,” she said in an interview Monday. “This is absolutely devastating, and certainly in my experience, one of the most devastating things I have seen,” Gene Necklaus, the chief of the Scottsboro Fire Department, told reporters during a briefing at the marina, adding, “This is going to be an extremely intense and long operation.”
“We woke up and I was hearing screaming and popping noises,” she said, noting that the noises seemed to be coming from exploding propane and gas tanks on the other boats. The authorities said the fire appeared to have started in the first couple of slips from the shore before rapidly engulfing the dock, scorching the mix of house boats, pontoons and other vessels moored there. The Highlands Medical Center said it had treated and released seven people. Officials on Monday did not release the names of those killed.
The roof of the dock collapsed on the boats, a mix of house boats, pontoons and smaller water craft, Chief Deputy Rocky Harnen of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said. It was not clear what caused the fire, which was being investigated by the State of Alabama Fire Marshals Office and the Scottsboro Fire Department, he said. The community at Jackson County Park is tight-knit, a permanent home for some and a weekend getaway for others. On weekends, it swells with crowds eager to fish and grill and bond over Alabama’s sacred game of football. Many described it as their own modest slice of paradise.
The Highlands Medical Center said it had treated and released seven people who were involved in the fire. Mandy Durham, who was staying on her boyfriend’s houseboat at a neighboring dock about 50 yards away, said she saw the flames light up the night sky. Gas and propane tanks hissed and burst, she said, and she could hear screaming.
“This is going to be an extremely intense and long operation,” Chief Necklaus said. “We are in what we are going to call a recovery phase.” “The fire was so aggressive,” she said. “It was going from one boat to the next.” She said that one fellow house boat resident was able to escape by throwing his kayak in the water.
“That doesn’t mean that our recovery effort is over,” he said. “We are going to put every one resource into ensuring that every vessel and every piece of this lake that we can reasonably suspect is clear.” The dock was reduced to mounds of blackened rubble. Bobbing boat fenders and other parts had washed into the mud along the banks.
“We don’t want anybody unaccounted for.” Hours after the fire had been extinguished, a stretch of the river lined mostly with thickets of dormant trees was closed off by containment boom and was being patrolled by official vessels. Yards away from the dock, the incinerated hulls of pontoons breached the brackish water, where they sat until they were removed by investigators later in the day.
The authorities did not identify any of the victims. Mr. Cuzzort huddled with his family outside a cabin a short stroll from the docks, where they cried. One after the next, relatives and friends silently embraced Mr. Cuzzort’s son-in-law who had lost his wife and children. Mr. Cuzzort, like many others, was in shock and could not say much.
Ms. Durham, 32, was on a neighboring dock about 50 yards away, where she was staying on her boyfriend’s houseboat when the fire broke out. “It’s bad, it’s terrible,” said Richard Shealy, who gestured at the husband and father, whose name he did not release, as he was enveloped in a hug. “He lost his family.”
“We could see red through the window,” she said. “We ran out to see what was going on.” The devastating fire also punctured the sense of idyll that had drawn many residents, both those who lived there full-time and those who drive there on weekends from Huntsville, the biggest nearby city about 40 miles away. Jackson County Park, in a city of just over 14,000 people, has walking trails, tranquil wooded areas and access to prime bass and crappie fishing.
She said they were watching the fiery scene to see what they could do to help when firefighters evacuated them to the shoreline, where she recorded the videos. “We love all the people around here,” Mindy Henson said as she sat in her truck with her husband, Shaun, looking out at the charred wreckage and dabbing her eyes. “It’s home.”
“The fire was so aggressive,” she said. “It was going from one boat to the next.” She said that one fellow houseboat resident was able to escape the burning dock by throwing his kayak in the water. In the neighborhood of camper trailers, situated on the river bank, cornhole tournaments kick off the weekends on Friday nights. During football season, the aroma of smoked meats and banter about the University of Alabama’s performance wafts across the park.
About 19 agencies, including the Scottsboro Fire Department, the Scottsboro Police Department and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, were on the scene earlier Monday, along with volunteers. “The gate shuts, everything stays on that side of the gate,” Rick Slayton, who has had a camper for just over three years, said of his oasis on what he called the “Redneck Riviera.” “All your troubles are outside.”
The Jackson County Emergency Management Agency said on Twitter that the public should avoid all land and water areas around Jackson County Park. The community has endured hardship before. About a decade ago, a storm damaged many of the campers; Mr. Slayton says the community pulls together to support residents who have died or who have lost loved ones.
Scottsboro, which has about 14,400 residents, is in northern Alabama, about 40 miles east of Huntsville. But as he stood on the river bank on an overcast Monday afternoon, Mr. Slayton said that the community was now forced to wrestle with something far worse. He thought of one of his neighbors, who had watched the inferno from close to where Mr. Slayton now stood.
“It would haunt me to hear those people screaming, those children screaming, and there’s nothing you can do,” Mr. Slayton said. When he is not fishing or socializing, he said he would sit and soak in the atmosphere. But he now fears it will never be the same.
“Every time I look out,” he said, “it’s going to be heartache.”
Rick Rojas reported from Scottsboro, and Johnny Diaz from New York.