Yacht Fires Are Most Expensive, Single Event In Fort Lauderdale's History
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - A raging fire destroyed two luxury yachts early Saturday morning at a marina in Fort Lauderdale.
As of Monday afternoon, it does not appear that a crime was committed.
"We've met with many officials out here over the weekend and people on surrounding boats as well as video footage from closed-circuit television in the area," said Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Steve Gollan.
"At this point we've come to the conclusion there's nothing suspicious with this fire," he said
Investigators from Fort Lauderdale as well as Alcohol, Tobacco and firearms spent the day looking into the fire, searching for indicators as to how it began.
"Through the tapes and through the interviews we can see different areas of origin and can see how the fire started and grew but we don't have it pinpointed down to the exact occurrence that took place," Gollan said.
The fire broke out just after 4 in the morning on Saturday on the larger of the two boats — then spread. Now comes the task of cleaning up.
The fire department is turning the scene over to salvage crews.
"One of the first tasks will be removing hazards so they have clean access to the vessels," Gollan said. "After that, they'll remove the fuel on both vessels and bring the boats up so they're no longer sitting on the bottom."
Investigators call this a record-breaker when it comes to damage. "This particular fire here will be the largest dollar amount for a single incident in the city of Fort Lauderdale," Gollan said. "The two values of the boats combined put us over the 20 million dollar mark."