Cause Of Marina Fire Unknown -- 20 Boats Lost But No One Killed

Seattle Fire Department officials say they don't know what caused a multimillion-dollar fire that burned a Lake Washington Ship Canal marina and sank up to 20 boats late Friday.

But Joseph Johnson thinks it was his Christmas tree.

No one died in the fire, although families or individuals who lived aboard 14 boats at Leco Marine, just east of the Ballard Bridge, have been left homeless.

At least three people jumped into the frigid water to escape the flames that raced along the wooden docks where Johnson's boat was moored, leaving at least half the marina in charred ruins. Seven people were treated for smoke inhalation, hypothermia or minor injuries, according to Albert Smalls, a Fire Department spokesman.

With coin-sized burns visible on his face, a tearful Johnson visited the dock yesterday morning to check on the one thing in his life that hadn't been accounted for - his cat Cow Paddy.

Cow Paddy was found a little later, after firefighters cleaning up the mess began calling for him. The cat was hiding - very cold and very frightened - under a walkway in the boatyard.

``I'm sure it started in my Christmas tree,'' Johnson said. ``The fire was all over our boat when we discovered it, and it was just starting in some of the other boats. I grabbed the baby and we all just ran for it. We didn't get anything out.''

Johnson's wife, Eda-Marie, was treated and released from a hospital - her face burned and her hair singed. Their 10-year-old daughter, Kirsten, who'd been treated for a leg injury earlier in the afternoon after a sledding accident, was OK. The baby, 4-month-old Chelsea Rae, who Johnson had snatched from his crib just as it caught fire, was safe. Their dog, Keisla, was probably dead. The last Johnson saw of him he was afire.

The 35-foot motor cruiser that Johnson's family lived aboard burned and sank in the ship canal, taking all the family's belongings with it.

Firefighters haven't said what caused the fire - they don't even know if it began on Johnson's boat. Some witnesses said they thought it was a woodstove on one of the vessels. The fire apparently started on one boat, fire officials said - not necessarily Johnson's. It quickly spread across creosote-coated pilings and dry roof beams on the pier, and eventually spread to a two-story wood structure on shore. Barrels of the solvent acetone stored in the building exploded.

Damage will run up to $2 million, said Assistant Fire Chief Mike Johnson.

The Leco Marine pier is on the south side of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, east of

the Ballard Bridge, at 1080 W. Ewing St., north of West Nickerson Street.

The fire broke out just before midnight in the U-shaped marina, which provided covered and outside moorage for about 30 large pleasure boats. The owner of the marina, William Legg, is ill and in a hospital, said the marina manager, who wouldn't give his name.

There were no injuries among the dozens of firefighters who had to fight the blaze in freezing temperatures and cramped space at the end of a dead-end street. Six Seattle police harbor patrol boats responded to the fire, as did one Coast Guard vessel.

Two men who escaped the fire by jumping into the frigid waters of the ship canal, David Colli and Greg LaRoy, said the fire spread instantly, blasting through wood partitions in the covered part of the marina.

Two 275-foot fishing boats were heavily damaged, Chief Johnson said.

The fire was so hot that a flashlight on the deck of a harbor patrol boat melted, said Police Sgt. Duane Hoekstra. The harbor patrol plucked at least one woman off the end of a burning pier.

Fire Department spokesman Smalls and several witnesses said firefighters deserve credit for saving lives in the worst rescue conditions imaginable. Temperatures were in the teens, with a wind-chill factor near zero. The only access to the fire was down steep side streets coated with ice.

About a dozen ambulances waited to treat the injured.

Firefighters worked in shifts, receiving periodic relief from colleagues who waited on West Nickerson Street, above the fire scene.

Firefighters wearing bulky protective gear and oxygen bottles found it difficult to walk or even stand on level ground at the scene of the fire. Many of those being relieved by fresh firefighters left with their protective clothing completely covered by a layer of ice, formed when fire-hose spray froze to their uniforms.

The fire was extinguished by about 3 a.m., but firefighters remained at the scene through the morning yesterday, escorting boat owners out to the docks that remained to view their losses.

Firefighters allowed Roylynn Ware to go aboard her house barge to pack a few things. A friend waited on land.

Ware had watched the fire from a neighbors' boat in the middle of the canal. She had been awakened by the fire, and by the time she got out of her boat, the flames appeared to be blocking her way to shore. Neighbors were starting their boat to try to shove off and save it. Ware jumped aboard at the last minute.