On Saturday January 9, 2010 at approximately 1650 hrs I was dispatched to a boat fire at Fisherdale Dock and Restaurant in Decatur county.  Officer arrived at 1758 hrs and began to gather information about the owner and the vessel.  I arrived at 1808 hrs and learned that the Decatur county fire department had extinguished the fire and had already left the scene.   I met with a witness who had cut off the power to the dock where the vessel was moored.  He stated he saw smoke coming from the back of the Tea Room behind the restaurant while he was in his home watching television.  He went to the dock and saw the boat on fire and immediately shut off the power to the dock.  The fire department arrived on scene at 1701 and had the fire under control at 1720.  The boat was burned completely out except for the outer shell.  The boat was taking on water and was beginning to sink lower into the water.  It eventually sank to the bottom.
     I phone interviewed the owner of the boat and learned that he had been to the boat on Thursday January 9, 2010.  He had found that the extreme cold weather had froze up a water pump to the cabin.  The owner already had a ceramic heater in the engine compartment and he went to a local store and purchased another ceramic heater for the cabin area.  An arson/fire investigator determined that an electrical fault in this ceramic heater had caused the fire.  The vessel had a halon unit in the engine compartment and it did deploy lessening the damage to that area of the boat.
DECATURVILLE                  