According to the operator of vessel 1, he was attempting to perform maintenance on the vessel at the time of the incident.  Operator stated that he had problems with the vessel starting the day before and he had removed the battery and taken it home to charge the night before.  Upon reinstalling the battery, the boat still would not crank properly.  After a few minutes, he removed several spark plugs to see if they were the problem.  Operator then tried to crank the motor.  When he did, fire ignited gas dripping from the engine and quickly engulfed the power head.  

Operator then grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to put the fire out.  The first extinguisher was unable to contain the fire so he tried to remove a 35 gallon gas tank that was sitting in the rear of the boat and was unable to remove that by himself.  At that time, operator ran to another boat moored to a dock nearby and grabbed another fire extinguisher, which was unable to extinguish the fire.  While this was happening an unidentified onlooker notified currituck 911 of the situation.  Currituck fire dept. Arrived on scene and was able to extinguish both the boat fire and dock to which the boat had been tied to.  The boat was totally gutted on the inside from the fire and the motor destroyed, leaving it a total loss.  The dock which belongs to currituck county had at least several hundred dollars damage to it.
POPLAR BRANCH                 