BASED ON INFORMATION TO DATE:  On February 24, 2009 Wildlife Officer 2 and I (Wildlife Officer 1), were working together on the South Holston River tail waters.  At 20:19 Officer 2 received traffic regarding a boat fire at Friendship Marina.  We arrived on the scene fourteen minutes later at 20:33.  The following was observed upon our arrival:
Sullivan County Fire, Sheriff, and EMS were on scene.  There was obvious fire coming from three separate boats out on the lake, away from the marina.  After speaking with Fireman 1 of the Highway 421 VFD, I learned that he was the first of the emergency personnel to arrive on scene.  He stated that he entered the burning boat house and cut two of the three burning boats loose to prevent the spread of the fire.  The third burning boat, according to the Friendship Marina owner, had come loose on its own prior to his arrival, and was drifting between the two boat houses.  All three boats at our arrival had been moved out a few hundred yards away from the marina to isolate the fire.  Officer 2 and I made our way down to the slips were the boats had originally caught fire.  We found three additional boats that suffered fire damage in the adjacent slips.  Two of the three were pontoon boats (V5, V6) that suffered minimal damage to vinyl and pedestal seats, but the third was a small houseboat (V4) which sustained some significant damage.  The back deck of the houseboat was severely burned along with the outboard motor and a generator.  There was smoke escaping from inside the cabin so Sullivan County Fire forced their way in and extinguished a small fire that resulted in minimal damage.  Outside of the vessel damage was obvious boat house damage.  Two wooden walkways were burned for a total loss, and the electrical system surrounding the slips involved was damaged.  The metal roofing directly over the slips was severely heat damaged and much of the surrounding roofing was blackened by the smoke.  Fire crews had no means of extinguishing any of the fire other than by throwing lake water from buckets onto the flames.  Eventually a fire boat from Painter Creek Marina arrived and was used to extinguish the fires on the three burning boats.  Once the fire was no longer burning two of the three boats were pulled to shore.  These included a fiberglass Baha vessel (V1) and a Godfrey Pontoon boat (V3) belonging to owner1 and owner 2 respectively.  Both vessels were total losses.  The third vessel, a Chris Craft (V2),belonging to owner 3, sank away from the marina directly after the fire onboard was extinguished.  The first witness to the fire was the marina technician.  He stated that at about 19:30 he was in his house, which is very near the boat house, and that he heard an explosion outside.  He said he thought something on Highway 421 Bridge had exploded, until a couple of minutes later he heard a second explosion.  He looked out his window and saw the dock on fire.  He then got in his truck and got the marina owner, and they called 911.  They then went down to the dock to see what they could do.  He stated that the Chris Craft was on fire and that he then boarded a pontoon boat and made his way near the burning boat.  He could at that point see that the two boats on either side of the Chris Craft, the Baha and the Godfrey, were also burning along with a small fire on the small houseboat at the end of the boat house.  When Sullivan County Fire arrived the marina technician said that he assisted in pulling all three boats out into the lake to prevent the spread of the fire. Wildlife Officer 3 obtained a written statement from the marina technician.  Wildlife Officer Dennis 4 arrived on scene and he and Officer2 photographed and logged the scene.  The following morning Wildlife Officer 5 and I returned to the marina.  We again photographed, as well as video-taped, the scene in the dayligh
BRISTOL                       